Fugitive Lai claims he was spying on Taiwan for Beijing

Alleged Chinese smuggling kingpin Lai Changxing (賴昌星) said in Vancouver on Friday that he was such a successful businessman in China that he had been noticed by Beijing and asked to spy on Taiwan.

At a refugee hearing to determine whether Lai and his wife can win political asylum in Canada, the man widely considered to be China's most wanted fugitive said he didn't want to talk publicly about his spying.

"The people are still in their position," he said at the refugee hearing. When it reopened to the public, Lai testified that he had given information to an official in China's national security department.

"They felt quite happy about the information, and he told me: `National interest is number one, so if there is anything you want, let me know,'" Lai said.

The national security department was so satisfied with his spy reports, Lai said through a translator, that officials became concerned about his personal security.

"So the ministry was thinking of sending a bodyguard with me to follow my actions and have a gun," Lai said. "I disagreed and said I was a businessman."

With his money, he came under the attention of Beijing, which wanted his help to spy on Taiwan and student dissidents from the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising in exchange for helping him move to Hong Kong.

He said he turned down the request because he had no contacts among the student movement and managed to move to Hong Kong by changing his name.

Lai, his wife, Tsang Mingna, and their three teenage children fled to Canada in 1999 from Hong Kong after receiving a tip that he would be arrested by China on smuggling charges.