Taiwan probes senior staff at Hong Kong-listed China Innovation after Chinese ‘spy’ William Wang claimed it was a front for Beijing espionage operations
- Xiang Xin, the firm’s chief executive, and his wife Kung Ching, an alternate director, are cooperating with Taiwanese authorities, China Innovation said
- The company has denied any wrongdoing and says self-proclaimed spy Wang, who is seeking asylum in Australia, was not one of its employees
China Innovation Investment, a little-known Hong Kong firm dragged into spying allegations it denies, says Taipei has waded into the matter by initiating an investigation into two of its senior staff.
The Taiwanese authorities have asked Xiang Xin, China Innovations’ chairman and chief executive, and his wife Kung Ching, an alternate director, to cooperate with an investigation it is carrying out into “the matter of the news reports”, the company said.
It was referring to recent media reports that a man claiming to be a Chinese spy seeking asylum in Australia alleged he undertook undercover espionage work in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia.
He claims he was embedded as part of a spying apparatus within China Innovation Investment. Beijing has been using the company as a front to interfere with Hong Kong politics by infiltrating universities, political groups and media companies, he has said.
Xiang and Kung received a notice from the Investigation Office of the Ministry of Taiwan’s Investigation Bureau as they were about to leave Taipei’s Taoyuan airport, the firm said.