RTHK
Date: 2019-11-23

Chinese police said on Saturday that a man described in foreign media as a Chinese spy who defected to Australia with a trove of intelligence on Beijing's political interference operations in Hong Kong and overseas is an "unemployed" fraud fugitive.

Wang Liqiang, 26, was found guilty of automobile import fraud in 2016 and given a suspended 15-month prison sentence by a court in east China's Fujian province, Shanghai police said in a statement on an official social media account.

His Chinese passport and Hong Kong resident document were "forged", police said, adding that authorities were "further investigating the case."

Earlier, the Nine network newspapers reported that Wang told ASIO – the country’s counterespionage agency – that he was involved in several operations including the kidnapping of a Hong Kong booksellers in 2015.    [FULL  STORY]