Intelligence services in Taiwan and China are still tight-lipped on the whereabouts of Wang Shanyong (王善勇), who is allegedly a Chinese double agent who boarded a flight and defected to Taiwan after working undercover in Hong Kong carrying out espionage missions for Beijing for more than three decades.
In the latest development, Wang issued a statement through the Yazhou Zhoukan weekly yesterday, in which he denied that he was a Chinese spy working for Taiwan, that he left Hong Kong on “family matters” and is currently in Canada.
However, the statement’s authenticity could not be verified, and Chinese-language media continued to speculate on Wang’s status and whether he is in Canada or another location.
A spokesperson for the Military Intelligence Bureau, where Wang was reportedly being debriefed and detained, told the Taipei Times yesterday that he could not confirm Wang’s whereabouts, and said that the case was not being handled at the bureau.
However, media in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China have continued to publish accounts of Wang’s supposed defection.
The accounts say that he reportedly boarded a flight to Taipei sometime in October after being alerted that the Chinese Ministry of State Security was closing in on him to arrest him — allegedly after discovering his activities as a double agent passing on intelligence to Taiwan since at least the 1990s.
Wang was said to have received training in espionage at the Chinese ministry, before going to Hong Kong in 1982 to work as an undercover agent at various media organizations.
Since then, he had become a well-known journalist, working as a reporter and head of the news desk for Wen Wei Pao, and more recently, as a senior editor at Ta Kung Pao another Hong Kong daily.
Wang’s sudden departure from his home and disappearance from his job was reported by media outlets at the end of last month, fueling fervent speculation by media and political pundits in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.
It is being touted as one of the most sensational spy cases in recent decades, with multiple reports claiming that Wang had become a double agent after starting as a Chinese undercover agent to gather intelligence on media and political figures in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Hong Kong’s press said Wang was being debriefed by Taiwanese intelligence. It was also reported that he was turned after making numerous visits to Taiwan during the 1980s as a senior Hong Kong journalist.
On one of the visits, Wang met a female Taiwanese agent, surnamed Lin (林), who induced him the to secretly work for Taiwan and pass on useful intelligence, while still acting as an agent for China.
Intelligence officials said that if Wang was a Chinese agent working undercover in Hong Kong for decades, his defection could be highly damaging to China and therefore he would want to remain in hiding.
One Taiwanese expert who requested anonymity said Wang might be a very valuable asset for discerning the inner workings of China’s intelligence service and that it is possible he was transferred out of Taiwan to provide information to US or other Western intelligence agencies.
None of the reports about Wang’s alleged spying activities have been verified.
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