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China-Australia relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Chinese ‘spy’ who claimed he undermined Hong Kong protest movement facing deportation from Australia over fraud claims

  • An immigration tribunal expresses grave doubts over Wang Liqiang’s claims about an espionage network because of his fraudulent activities
  • Wang claimed to have been active in Hong Kong and Taiwan – but the island’s authorities dropped all charges against the people he accused

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William Wang Liqiang made a series of explosive claims in an interview with Australian television. Photo: 60 Minutes Australia
Cyril Ip
A self-proclaimed Chinese spy who attracted global attention with a series of claims about China’s espionage activity is facing deportation from Australia after a panel ruled he was guilty of fraud.

William Wang Liqiang’s claims had led to the arrest of two Hong Kong executives in Taiwan before prosecutors found his claims to be baseless and dropped the charges.

The 32-year-old had requested political asylum in Australia, but the country’s Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled that he had committed “serious fraud against an Australian citizen” Filip Shu Xin.

The tribunal questioned how it could “safely find that [Wang] was engaged in espionage ­activities” given his fraudulent activities. The home affairs department rejected his asylum application, meaning that he faces deportation back to mainland China, where he is also charged with fraud.

Wang’s former business associate Shu sued him for A$3 million (US$2 million) in 2020, leading to Wang’s assets being frozen by the New South Wales Supreme Court.

Shu claimed that Wang had persuaded him in 2018 to invest millions in a business which transports luxury cars from Germany to China, while offering a property in Shanghai, which he said he owned with his wife, as security.

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