Taiwan’s National Security Bureau is working with international partners to verify information leaked by a Chinese defector about Beijing’s interference in Taiwan’s elections.
China claims the defector, Wang Liqiang, is a fraud. Wang’s interview with Australian news program 60 Minutes was broadcast on Sunday.
Wang claims that he helped plan recent Hong Kong college campus incidents and a kidnapping of a co-owner of Lee Bo, a Causeway Bay bookstore. He also says he set up a cyber army in Taiwan to help Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu win next year’s presidential election.
When asked by reporter Nick Mackenzie why people should believe him, Wang said that if his comments weren’t true, the Australian government wouldn’t be protecting him. Australian intelligence expert Phillip Gregory said on the program that Wang’s remarks were credible.
Taiwanese Deputy Foreign Minister Hsu Szu-chien was also interviewed for the program. He said he would not be surprised if China was using spies to interfere with elections. Hsu said that Taiwan’s situation is not just a cross-strait issue, but is essentially an issue between the world’s two superpowers.