Chinese state media has released trial footage it says proves that a Chinese defector seeking asylum in Australia is a convicted criminal with a history of fraud.
Australian media reports said that the defector, named William Wang Liqiang (王立強), has provided Australian intelligence with details about Chinese political interference in Hong Kong and Australia, and Beijing’s plans to disrupt next year’s presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan.
However, China accused the 26-year-old man of being an unemployed fraudster and fugitive.
Screen grab from the Internet
Shanghai police said an investigation was launched in April after Wang was allegedly involved in automobile import fraud in February totalling 4.6 million yuan (US$653,836).
He had been given a suspended 15-month prison sentence in 2016 in a separate fraud case, police added.
Wang was also carrying a forged passport and Hong Kong resident document, they said.
Late on Wednesday, the Global Times released the footage and said that Wang had become “a new tool for the West to smear China.”
The footage, said to be from October 2016, shows a man identified as Wang confessing to fraud and asking the court for leniency, saying that he had “weak legal awareness.”
Yesterday, the Global Times said that Wang has continued his “fraudulent activities” overseas, “making up a series of fake stories that throw shade at China backed by Western media speculation.”
“All the evidence points toward the fact that Wang is merely a fraudster spouting nonsense and mixing up black and white,” it said.
Wang is reportedly living in Sydney with his wife and infant son on a tourist visa.
A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman on Wednesday slammed the “hysteria” surrounding the case.
“Certain Australian media and institutions have been creating and hyping up ‘Chinese espionage’ and ‘Chinese infiltration’ with all kinds of false exaggeration and bias,” the spokesman said. “They have reached a state of hysteria and extreme nervousness.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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