Welcome to the Utopia Forums! Register a new account
The current time is Fri Mar 29 09:33:20 2024

Utopia Talk / Politics / 60 Minutes Australia Vetts Chinese Spy
Cherub Cow
Member
Mon Nov 25 03:09:34
In case anyone needed more reason to be suspicious of Chinese intelligence activities...:
"WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Chinese spy [Wang 'William' Ligiang] spills secrets to expose Communist espionage"
[60 Minutes Australia, November 24th, 2019]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdR-I35Ladk&t=1sFrom
Cherub Cow
Member
Mon Nov 25 03:09:41
They spend a *lot* of time playing up how much danger the spy is in for defecting, that he needs Australian government protection, and that he's a "hero" who has more to tell. Partly it's for credibility, but it also looks like he agreed to this exposé on the condition that 60 Minutes would build a positive case for him, so it's not worth watching all the way through. Sure, that's important to his safety and future, but they repeat it a *lot* for the commercial breaks and for effect.

Cutting the fat, these are some highlights of what he was tasked with doing and learned:
• Infiltrated HK university with objective of swaying people away from pro-HK-democracy demonstrations, found pro-Independence activists and doxed them and their families (6:43)
• His HK boss was tasked with infiltrating media with pro-China messages (9:45)
• Helped organize the kidnapping of 5 Hong Kong pro-democracy book-sellers, who were brought to mainland China detention centers ("Causeway Bay Books disappearances") (13:25)
• Was sent forged documents so that he could go to Taiwan to spy on U.S. military interests (19:05)
• Was tasked with meddling with Taiwan's election, infiltrating their media and grassroots movements, and undermining Taiwan's anti-Beijing president (20:10)
• Was tasked by pro-Beijing Taiwan candidate with creating a "cyber army" that would attack Facebook pages based on political views (23:30)
• Identified Taiwan media infiltration (24:30)
• Claims that successful Australian car dealer, Nick Zhao, was promised a 7-figure sum for infiltrating Australian parliament (27:40)
• Nick Zhao may have been killed for not accepting the offer to infiltrate parliament (32:30)
• Claims to know additional spies currently operating in Australia (34:00)
• Claims that Huang Xiangmo, who was investigated for espionage and barred from Australia, is directly connected to his former boss/handler

At the end, they mention that his HK boss has tried to get him to come back, and China police have accused him of being a "convicted fraud and wanted fugitive" (37:45), so you've gotta hope that "60 Minutes" did their due diligence ;p
swordtail
Anarchist Prime
Mon Nov 25 09:00:00
http://udn...5036?__twitter_impression=true
swordtail
Anarchist Prime
Mon Nov 25 09:21:52
http://twitter.com/MrKennethTan/status/1198598160739782658
obaminated
Member
Mon Nov 25 11:16:12
Why does ST even bother posting here anymore? Does anyone take him seriously?
CrownRoyal
Member
Mon Nov 25 12:37:51
Can you list all UP people who take you seriously, mt? Let’s see why you bother posting here, if that’s the standard
CrownRoyal
Member
Mon Nov 25 12:40:01
You can put me on that list, btw. I take you very seriously, pendejo
Cherub Cow
Member
Tue Nov 26 01:23:44
@swordtail links
Lulz.. Looking like 60 Minutes Australia (maybe?) didn't get a good enough expert. They had HK-based Former Australian Intelligence *Officer* Philip Gregory (just an officer?), whereas the counter claim was from Wen Yanqing, former deputy director of the Taiwanese Military Intelligence Bureau — a much more significant position than a regular officer. Gregory's testimony in the video was mostly just based on Ligiang's present trustworthiness (reading his emotions and going over punishments he might face in China), not any specific details of operational knowledge, whereas Wen has specific reasons to dismiss the claims. This one in particular caught my attention:

[Wen, first ST link]: "The squadron has a special job, and the task must be single. He is also responsible for Hong Kong, and he also takes care of Taiwan's work and violates the principle of intelligence work in the world."

While watching the video I was thinking about how "Forrest Gump" things were looking. That is, Wang was somehow involved in *lots* of high-profile and varied tasks (unlikely) instead of just being given one obscure task and working it until finished (more likely). That goes into another Wen point: "He was looking at the newspaper and publishing the text." That means that he has knowledge only of the popular stories because those happen to be the ones with Wiki pages and existing conspiracy theories attached. Actual operatives would have names and events that no one has even heard about (not to say that no one knows about the things that everyone *has* heard about).

Even so, Wen could be playing a part to build the "fraud" narrative as part of discrediting a legitimate source, so Australian intelligence who evaluate Wang this week will have the final word on his credibility.
show deleted posts

Your Name:
Your Password:
Your Message:
Bookmark and Share