China Briefing | Explosive claims of ‘Chinese spy’ Wang Liqiang seem more fiction than fact
- The facts do not add up with the self-professed Chinese spy Wang Liqiang
- There’s a growing consensus he’s either a low-level operative grossly overstating his role or a scam artist
But instead of putting Wang Liqiang in a secure location for a thorough debriefing which could take months, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation apparently took a back seat and allowed some enthusiastic journalists to lead the investigation on what has been billed as the most significant spy defection since 1954, when a Russian KGB officer sought political asylum in Australia.
However, significant doubts have since been cast on most of Wang’s sensational claims, including by a former senior intelligence official in Taiwan, prominent people named in the reports, and China’s state media, which started to dig into his background.
A growing consensus appears to be that, at best, the 27-year-old former art student is a low-level errand-running operative who has grossly overstated his role and access, and, at worst, he is a scam artist and a fugitive fleeing China and seeking protection in Australia.
Even the Australian government is wary about Wang’s spy claims. The Australian Financial Review reported on Tuesday that while it was considering Wang’s protection claims seriously, it would also “attempt to separate fact from fiction”.