China sought late Saturday to discredit a man identified as a Chinese spy who defected to Australia with a trove of intelligence on Beijing's political interference operations in Hong Kong and overseas, accusing him of being an unemployed fraudster and fugitive.
The Shanghai police statement came hours after a bombshell Australian media report recounting how Wang Liqiang had given Canberra's counter-espionage agency the identities of China's senior military intelligence officers in Hong Kong.
He also provided details of how they funded and conducted operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia, according to the report, published in Australia's Nine network newspapers, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Wang said he was personally involved in infiltration and disruption operations in all three territories. His allegations come as Hong Kong is rocked by months-long pro-democracy protests.
He has also "revealed in granular detail" how Beijing covertly controls listed companies to fund intelligence operations, including the surveillance and profiling of dissidents and the co-opting of media organisations, the report stated.
Wang is currently living in Sydney with his wife and infant son on a tourist visa and has requested political asylum, it said.
But in the first comments by Chinese authorities, Shanghai police painted a different picture of the 26-year-old man.
Wang 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, the police said in a statement on an official social media account.
The case involved Wang defrauding 4.6 million yuan ($653,000) from a business partner, according to a court document.
"According to the verification of the public security organ, Wang Liqiang, the so-called 'Chinese agent' reported by foreign media... is unemployed ..
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