Self-proclaimed Chinese spy William Wang who defected to Australia is a fraud and wanted criminal, China says
- Wang Liqiang convicted of fraud in 2016 and is under investigation for another alleged crime, Shanghai police claim
- Wang claims to be Beijing-sponsored secret agent who undertook undercover espionage work in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia
A Chinese man claiming to be a Beijing-sponsored secret agent who defected to Australia is really a convicted fraudster and wanted criminal suspect, Shanghai police have claimed.
The police statement was issued late on Saturday, hours after Australian media reported that William Wang Liqiang gave a sworn statement to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) about Beijing’s efforts to influence politics in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia.
The reports said Wang had given ASIO the identities of senior Chinese military intelligence officers in Hong Kong, as well as details of how espionage work was funded and conducted there, as well as in Taiwan and Australia.
Shanghai police said Wang – described as a 26-year-old unemployed worker from Nanping in the southeastern province of Fujian – was given an 18-month suspended sentence in October 2016 for fraud by the Guangze county court in Fujian.
According to an online document in the case, Wang “made up fictional facts and concealed the truth” to defraud a father of two children of 120,000 yuan (HK$133,400) after offering to get the children into a special school in 2015. At that time, Wang was a student and it was his first offence.
