Photo: Screenshot of SBSNews

Australian media recently reported that a "Chinese spy" named Wang Liqiang had decided to "defect to Australia." According to anti-China newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald, Wang worked in Hong Kong at China Innovation Investment Limited, a company that the media claimed was set up to "infiltrate into Hong Kong's financial market" and to collect "military intelligence." Wang said he has "personally been involved and participated in a series of espionage activities." He also said he was involved in the "kidnapping" of the booksellers from Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong in 2015, adding that he was responsible for the "negotiation and tasks to be implemented."

Wang claimed that their work on Taiwan aimed at "infiltration into media, temples and grass-roots organisations." Wang said they successfully influenced the 2018 Taiwan elections and that he was given a "fake South Korean passport" to interfere in the 2020 "presidential election" in Taiwan. He also disclosed alleged details of "China's actions to exert political influence in Australia."

Ordinary people would think Wang is a veteran intelligence officer holding an important position, based on these media reports, however, Wang is only 26 years old - some Western media said he is 27 - and his wife and child are in Australia. His publicly stated purpose of defecting to Australia is to seek political asylum.

Chinese people would intuitively know that Wang sounds like an opportunistic liar, probably a swindler. Indeed, Shanghai police said on late Saturday evening that Wang is an ex-convict. He was previously sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2016 for fraud and put on probation for 18 months. Now the guy is trying to cheat internationally.

To work in China's national security establishment, one has to pass the civil service examination. Many hold graduate or a PhD degree, or bachelor's degree at the minimum. A 26-year-old person can only be a novice, so how could he hold an important position as Wang claimed? Wang was only 22 years old in 2015, and even if he was lucky enough to work in the national security department at such a young age, he would be in a training or intern program. How could he possibly be responsible for the "negotiation and tasks to be implemented?" The only explanation is that Wang made it up.

Besides, it is extremely rare that a person who works in China's national security establishment to have a child as early as 26. It is especially bizarre that an intelligence officer's wife and child both live in Australia. How can Wang's hollow lies fool Australia's intelligence agency? If Australia's intelligence agency really believed Wang, it would have taken secret counter-espionage actions instead of letting the media expose it. 

It seems more likely that Australia's intelligence agency is aware of Wang's opportunistic purposes and does not think his story has any intelligence value. But Australia finds his story valuable in public opinion. Thus The Sydney Morning Herald, a media organization that likes to smear China, has hyped Wang's story into an explosive story.

Now they have all got what they wanted. Australia's intelligence agency has shown its loyalty to the Western system, the Australian media has gained enough attention, and Wang has more chance of being granted political asylum.

The disgusting farce has fooled many Western people. The atmosphere of hostility toward China has been intensified in Western public opinion. Western media reports on China now only care about stance and completely ignore facts and logic.