[ April 19, 2024 ]
China’s military is engaged in an elaborate covert smuggling operation in Hong Kong to steal U.S. and other western arms and military technology. Best to let President Trump handle these fiends.
Chinese defector spills Communist Party, military secrets in Australia
By Bill Gertz – The Washington Times — December 3, 2019
China’s military is engaged in an elaborate covert smuggling operation in Hong Kong to steal U.S. and other western arms and military technology, according to a Chinese intelligence official who has defected to Australia.
Story continues below advertisementWang Liqiang described the operation in an official statement to Australian authorities that also revealed details of a major Chinese influence campaign aimed at swaying the upcoming presidential election in Taiwan, and aggressive efforts to undermine democracy advocates in Hong Kong.Mr. Wang worked until the past spring as a mid-level official in a Chinese military front organization controlled by the General Staff Department of the Chinese military, the department in charge of intelligence operations, according to his sworn statement to the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization (ASIO).
“I have been personally involved in a series of espionage activities that were in breach of the principles of democracy and morality, as well as activities intending to control media and public opinion,” Mr. Wang said, according to an English language translation of the statement.
Mr. Wang broke with the Communist Party of China after he was ordered to travel to Taiwan in May to take part in multi-million dollar covert operations aimed at manipulating the Taiwan elections. He defected rather than carry out the mission and is currently seeking political asylum for himself, his wife and an infant child.
A copy of his 17-page statement was obtained by The Washington Times. The statement was first reported by Australian news outlets 60 Minutes Australia, The Age, and the Sydney Morning Herald.
A U.S. official said Mr. Wang’s information is very detailed and appears credible, although his legitimacy as a defector has not been determined independently of the ASIO, a U.S. intelligence ally.
Former Defense Intelligence Agency counterintelligence official Nick Eftimiades, a China specialist, said that based on public statements he believes Mr. Wang is a legitimate defector. “They will determine more during the debriefing process,” he said. “They certainly have already done that otherwise this would not have gone public. He is young and came out after the Hong Kong protests started so he has motivation.”
China, through state media, has denounced Mr. Wang as a financial criminal and sought to discredit his reported disclosure secrets.
A spokesman for the Australian Embassy did not return emails seeking comment. A Chinese Embassy spokesman also did not return an email seeking comment.
In his statement, Mr. Wang warned repeatedly that he fears for his life and worries Chinese intelligence agents operating in Australia will kidnap and kill him to prevent the disclosure of secrets on a range of subjects.
Mr. Wang claimed to have worked for several years for a military front company that gathered intelligence and stole advanced technology, using Hong Kong’s open trading system. The targets included U.S. military satellite and aerospace technology and research on guided missiles.
Through the front company, China Innovation Investment Ltd., a publicly-listed Hong Kong firm, China’s military successfully used Hong Kong to covertly buy weapons banned for export directly to China, according to the defector’s statement.
The process involved purchasing arms and missiles, shipping them Hong Kong and then dismantling them and secretly sending them to China, Mr. Wang said in the statement without elaborating precisely.
“In fact, the so-called advanced weapons in China have been predominantly acquired through such channels,” he said.
Web of operations
Regarding influence operations in Taiwan, Mr. Wang said the goal was for Taiwan to “lose its sovereignty” while China seeks “to replace the Republic of China with rule of the Communist Party of China.”
Republic of China is Taiwan’s official name.
Mr. Wang also said the front company he worked for had operations aimed at infiltrating Hong Kong universities and media outlets.
A second Chinese military intelligence front, the Hong Kong-listed company, China Trends Holding Ltd., was also identified in Mr. Wang’s statement.
Both companies’ executive director, Xiang Xin and alternate director, Kung Ching, were detained by Taiwanese authorities on Nov. 25, after reports about Mr. Wang’s activities first emerged in Australia.
Based on the statement given to Australian authorities, Mr. Xiang appears to have been Mr. Wang’s intelligence handler. Mr. Wang said that Mr. Xiang served for many years in large military intelligence organization in China and was dispatched to Hong Kong to create the two front companies to support the intelligence operations.
Mr. Xiang’s wife, Qing Gong, is also working as a Communist Party of China agent, the defector claimed.
Mr. Wang also said that in addition to arms procurement and influence operations, the military intelligence fronts were used to spy on Chinese officials who fled to Hong Kong after losing out in factional Chinese Communist Party (CCP) disputes.
For example, Mr. Wang revealed that a senior Chinese Communist Party official Li Yuanchao, who was vice president of China from 2013 to 2018, made a “forced retreat” to Hong Kong. Intelligence agents, including Mr. Wang, sought to pressure him into returning to the mainland as part of an investigation.
Mr. Wang said he and several other agents met with a relative of Mr. Li’s at the Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong. They threatened Mr. Li’s wife as part of the pressure campaign and then began targeting the company he owned, identified as Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp.
The company is among the largest online video outfits in China and is based in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, near China’s border with Hong Kong.
Known as Le.com, the company was placed under investigation in April and is struggling financially.
“The crisis of Le.com has never been a financial crisis as it has been known,” Mr. Wang said. “It is in fact a political crisis. It was the faction strive [sic] inside the Communist Party of China that caused the collapse of this company.”
Another internal CCP factional dispute involves current Chinese Premier Li Keqing who has sought to deregulate financial markets and provide more incentives for business in China by promoting peer-to-peer lending.
To gain greater control over the financial sector, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has cracked down on the so-called “p2p” lending, according to Mr. Wang.
“The Communist Party of China suppressed these [p2p] organizations under the pretext that it is for the benefits of the people,” he said. “In fact, the real purpose behind [this] is to prevent the Chinese financial market from getting too active.”
Mr. Wang stated that his boss, Mr. Xiang, told him he could have been a provincial governor but chose to remain undercover in Hong Kong to avoid factional fighting in Beijing.
With regard to Taiwan election manipulation operations, meanwhile, Mr. Wang said the Chinese military-run influence campaign in Taiwan was a prime reason he broke with the CCP.
China’s influence operations in Taiwan, he said, included providing Chinese currency worth roughly $1.42 million to presidential candidates of Taiwan’s main opposition party, the pro-Beijing Kuomintang or KMT.
The Chinese influence operations also spread fake news attacking the ruling, pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, Mr. Wang stated.
Fifty Internet companies controlled by the Chinese military are working in Taiwan, and restaurants and hotels on the island are being used for intelligence collection, he said.
Cultural exchange programs from the mainland also are being used funnel money to pro-China groups and media as part of the campaigns. “We believe that if we help KMT win the election, then China wins the US,” Mr. Wang said of the operations.
Subterfuge in Hong Kong
Mr. Wang separately claimed to have taken part directly in the kidnapping and rendition to China in October 2015 of Lee Bo, a Hong Kong bookshop owner wanted by Beijing for selling dissident material.
The current Hong Kong protests were set off six months ago by plans to introduce a law that would make such renditions legal.
Mr. Bo was kidnapped for his role in publishing the book “Xi Jinping and His Six Women,” about the Chinese leader’s mistresses.
Mr. Wang claimed the kidnapping operation was part of Chinese military intelligence efforts targeting democracy advocates in Hong Kong and, ultimately, to “conduct sabotage and suppression of democracy.”
Several Chinese media outlets operating in the former British colony were identified in the defector’s statement as being controlled by China, including Hong Kong Satellite TV, whose chairman Hao Wang is accused of holding a military post equivalent to a division commander within the General Staff Department.
The front organization also gathered intelligence on pro-democracy advocates and others that were then placed under surveillance, Mr. Wang said.
Regarding work on Hong Kong universities, the defector claimed that Qing Gong, the wife of Mr. Xiang, led efforts to recruit agents among student populations to support Beijing’s policies. The agents would be called on to confront and politically attack pro-democracy students, Mr. Wang said.
Many of the pro-China students, he said, were dispatched from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, a school linked to the Chinese military, and trained in intelligence skills.
China’s government has shot back at the allegations, describing Mr. Wang as a “fraud” linked to past financial crime.
Beijing is known to use allegations of crime or corruption to discredit dissidents and opponents of the Chinese government.
Shanghai police issued a statement on Nov. 24 claiming Mr. Wang is a “fugitive suspect,” who was found guilty of financial fraud three years ago as part of an investment scheme, the Financial Times reported.
Chinese state-run news reports also maintain that a fraudulent passport, which Mr. Wang claims was provided to him for his mission to Taiwan, contained obvious errors and therefore, he could not be a legitimate intelligence defector.
Mr. Wang, however, noted that he had recognized the flaws in the passport.
In an interview with Australia’s “60 Minutes” on Nov. 24, the defector said that “Taiwan was the most important work of ours.” He added that Chinese agents infiltrated media, temples, and grass roots groups there.
The director general of ASIO, Mike Burgess, said last week that the Australian intelligence services are taking Mr. Wang’s allegations seriously and are “actively investigating” his claims.
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18 Comments
4 years ago
Entirely plausible, china has also bought out demonrats, RINO including Biden .
chinese commie have been stealing tech using “chinese” researchers in America.
Next comes jihadis who bought out the same scums to sell out American interest
Left/Liberals invite Muslim immigrants and they payback with fecal diversity cuisine
http://offtrade.net/cnmnews/coffee-chains-with-fecal-bacteria/
LOL !
4 years ago
The evil empire.
4 years ago
Reply to
jkarna
I never trust Chinese. they smile too much and you don’t see their eyes. look at the Campaign movie . too much truth I that. even western born Chinese.
4 years ago
Qing Kong? Big ape?
4 years ago
And this is going on far too long by the Chinese. They stole our rocket gyro stabilization tech from Loral through the Clinton’s. When I was a regional manager for a NASA subcontractor mid 90’s, we developed imaging systems used on the shuttle, it was policy not engage any Chinese at all. Now they are here robbing us blind.
4 years ago
Reply to
Jimmy Michaels
They did not steal the technology from Loral, it was given to them in exchange for campaign contributions.
4 years ago
any of you out there think this is news? that the chicoms are evil and out to destroy us? that they view our politicians as the proverbial fat rich kid who they can steal lunch money from with no fear?
4 years ago
The Chinese are like muslims and can never be trusted. EVERY western Chinese has relatives still in China and this is the lever always used to make them cooperate. The only good thing about China is their recognition of the ONLY way to treat muslims and perhaps we could all learn from that.
4 years ago
Confucius say, man who stand on toilet – high on pot…
4 years ago
Taiwan? Take a look at PRC companies in Canada – it’s like Taiwan times 100 and the PRC were very effective in manipulating Trudeau’s hold on power. In fact the PRC owns Trudeau and is the biggest funder of the Trudeau foundations.
4 years ago
Reply to
1PierreMontagne1
As everyone from the west is boycotting Chinese electronic communication companies for G5 systems but Schiff for brains Trudeau gives them the contract for northern infrastructure. Does anyone not believe that anything done with that system isn’t being being monitored by China?
Post a video and everyone’s face is recorded, make a comment about China and they know. They are already doing this with their own people.
Once connected with the national communication system everything gets tapped into.
Remember, Baby Doc Trudeau, rhe dumbest national leader, stated that the country he admires the most is “the basic dictatorship. of China”. He seems to believe that it is backward, poor, and like him, naive, but great food.
4 years ago
Reply to
stephen5970
His monobrow Gallic ancestry shines through in every grunt of idiocy he makes — whether in Engrish or Fwench.
4 years ago
Interesting article. The simple fact that the Chinese government does not allow democracy and elections and that they are COMMUNIST…….is all you need to know that you can’t trust China. What they are doing to the Hong Kong freedom movement with their violent crackdowns, is absolutely appalling…..but not surprising. That’s what Commies do.
4 years ago
Don’t think that Trump has not taken this into consideration while negotiating the trade deal. Past administrations of both parties would always bend over backward to give China whatever they wanted to keep access to their markets despite their constant spying and theft.
4 years ago
Reply to
Mike Kevins
And then China uses our tech and produces knockoffs for its own market.
Copyright means nothing to China,
4 years ago
THIS DEFECTOR IS A GOOD MAN AND SHOULD BE SENT TO TAIWAN WHERE HE HOPEFULLY WILL ENTER POLITICS AND HELP TAIWAN AVOID THE FATE OF HONG KONG! ALL THAT HE SAYS IS TRUE!
HOPEFULLY, HONG KONG IS AN EDUCATIONAL MOMENT FOR US RE: THE PRC WHICH ISN’T A STATE WE ON THE TRUE RIGHT SHOULD EMULATE OR SUPPORT LIKE IT PRETENDS TO BE! PRC MAKES RUSSIA UNDER PUTIN LOOK LIKE A DEMOCRATICALLY RUN, UBER-LIBERTARIAN PARADISE!
NOTICE RIGHTISTS HOW THE DEM-PARTY LEFTISTS IN THEIR COLLUSION BS NEVER PUT DOWN PRC WHICH CAN BE SHOWN I BELIEVE TO BE GIVING AID AND COMFORT TO RINO, ANTI-TRUMP, FALSE FRONT ORGS OF THE GEORGE SOROS-IAN GLOBALIST BANKING CLIQUE LIKE AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY, ETC WHO PREACH FREE TRADE AND OUTSOURCING JOBS TO PRC? THE ONLY HOPE FOR FOLKS IN HONG KONG OR MACAU IS TO IMMIGRATE OUT, I ACKNOWLEDGE THAT! SHAME FOR EVERYBODY EXCEPT PRC COMMIE LEADERSHIP, THAT THE BRITISH LOST THEIR IMPERIALIST LEANINGS AND DISHONORED BOTH HONG KONG AND MACAU BY NOT PUTTING GOING BACK TO COMMUNIST CHINA TO THE VOTE ON WHETHER TO LEAVE THE BRITISH IMPERIAL SYSTEM FOR PRC ADMINISTRATION OR TO STAY WITH THE BRITISH USING THE THREAT OF NAVAL, NUCLEAR SUPPORT KEEPING THE STATUS QUO! IN WW II, THE JAPANESE WERE RIGHT TO SET UP MANCHUKUO AND SUPPORT THE REORGANIZED ANTI-CHANG KAI SHEK NATIONALISTS OF THE EAST COAST OF CHINA, I BELIEVE HISTORY WILL SHOW!
I BELIEVE THE RELATIONSHIP THAT PRC IS TO THE GEORGE SOROS-IAN GLOBALIST BANKING CLIQUE IS ONE OF INDEPENDENT CONVENIENCE BUT ANY TRUE HAN-CHINESE NATIONALISM IN THE PRC DIED WITH ZHAO ENLAI! TODAY’S GOVERNMENT IS THE MONOPOLY CAPITALIST VERSION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE WHITE BONED DEMON, MAO-TSE-TUNG’S EVIL WIFE! HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON TO ALL RIGHTISTS!
4 years ago
Wang got balls! We should allow him to come to the U.S. and give him an anoyymous name.
