Since COSTIND’s inception in 1982, the US government has closely tracked its role and that of other Chinese government agencies because, as a 1997 US Congress briefing paper stated, “members of COSTIND have attempted to steal foreign, especially American, technology for military applications.” These COSTIND agents have often posed as business people under the "New Era" Group brand ("Xinshidai" in Chinese) - a business empire set up by by COSTIND itself. Loading The businessman who announced General Nie’s appointment in 2008 was Xiang Xin. The same man was recently named for the first time in Australian media reports by Wang Liqiang - a man who described himself in stories in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald and on 60 Minutes as a spy. He had moved to Sydney and sought political asylum as a former co-optee of an alleged Chinese intelligence officer. Mr Xiang, he said, was his spymaster. Casting doubt Mr Wang claimed he had joined a company in 2014 that was owned by Mr Xiang while finishing his undergraduate degree. According to Wang, he quickly gained his boss's trust and played a small but important role in covert Chinese government operations, including the kidnapping of a Hong Kong bookseller, and online interference in Taiwanese politics.

Leading Chinese intelligence expert Peter Mattis pointed to security agency and scholarly analysis about the unique role of co-optees in the Chinese system and ASIO’s director general Mike Burgess issued a rare public statement revealing his agency was assessing Mr Wang’s claims seriously. But some commentators cast doubt on Mr Wang’s claims, and the Chinese Communist Party called him a fake and released a video through one of its media outlets purporting to show him in a courtroom in 2016 being sentenced for fraud. Mr Xiang has also denied even knowing Mr Wang. Defecting Chinese spy Wang Liqiang is living in hiding in Sydney. Credit:Steven Siewert While much of Mr Wang’s story — also outlined in a sworn statement provided to ASIO— is hard to verify, independent documents unearthed by The Age, the Herald and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute support his claims about some of Mr Xiang’s connections and operations. They offer new insights into how Mr Xiang operated within a web of COSTIND-linked individuals. This is a network of businesses and Chinese military entities whose structure and operation have long eluded those seeking to better understand Beijing’s sprawling intelligence system.

A 'New Era' Mr Wang alleged that his former boss had been sent to Hong Kong in 1993 by COSTIND leaders Nie Li and her husband Ding Henggao. Prior to launching Sino Technologies - now called China Innovation Investment Limited or CIIL - documents show Mr Xiang created several companies in Hong Kong in that incorporated "Xinshidai" (New Era) in their names. Their logos bear striking similarities to those of the Chinese military's New Era group companies. Xiang Xin. The beneficial ownership of some of these ostensibly privately owned "Xinshidai" companies is obscure, with their principal shareholders operating from the tax havens in the Bahamas, Nuie and the British Virgin Islands.

At least six of Mr Xiang’s associates can be linked to COSTIND. Mr Xiang's wife, Gong Qing worked in the China National Defence Technology Information Centre, described in a US Congressional Research Service report as the public-facing name of COSTIND’s Intelligence Research Institute. In 2005, a businessman named Pang Weizhong was listed as a director of SNG Hong Kong Limited, a company partially owned by one of Mr Xiang’s Hong Kong firms. Mr Pang uses a Beijing address belonging to Mr Xiang's companies, and he previously worked as an executive at two of COSTIND’s companies in Shenzhen on the border with Hong Kong. Mr Pang has also worked in a charitable scientific association that had Lieutenant General Nie Li as its honorary president. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Li Tongyu, executive director of Mr Xiang's company CIIL from 2003 to 2005, worked for a Chinese satellite corporation when it was supervised by COSTIND. In 1999, he was deputy CEO of a satellite launch firm described by PLA expert James Mulvenon as "one of [COSTIND’s] most important companies". Li is currently an executive at China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation—China’s state-owned missile and satellite manufacturer, where he heads the Long March 11 rocket program.

Another CIIL alumnus is Luo Xiuqing, who worked as a senior executive in two COSTIND-supervised defence companies. Wang Qingyu, non-executive director and chairman of CIIL from 2005 to 2009, was president of a university administered by COSTIND and an executive in one of China’s largest arms manufacturers. Loading One of Mr Xiang’s most intriguing business partners is Guo Yijun, the general manager of a Beijing company that is majority owned by a company set up by Mr Xiang and his wife. A book chapter on China’s defence industry co-authored by Mr Guo in 1987 indicates he worked in COSTIND, possibly in its intelligence bureau. Covert operations These examples may only scrape the surface of Mr Xiang’s ties to China’s defence system.

Mr Xiang's public biography is vague about his time in mainland China. It notes that he graduated from Nanjing University of Science and Technology—then subordinate to COSTIND — and "has worked in a number of large organisations in the PRC". But his company’s investment activity — which includes a litany of deals with Chinese defence companies such as Norinco Group — makes it clear that one focus is on technologies with military applications, and that it operates with the backing of powerful figures in China’s military establishment. The documents refer to the links but Mr Wang’s statement, if true, takes this further with a purported insider's account into the contemporary activities of the network. Mr Wang said he was personally involved in interfering in Hong Kong universities - recruiting students to combat the independence movement - and running a covert cyber campaign to influence political debate in Taiwan with the ultimate aim of supporting pro-Beijing candidates. Taiwan takes action On the weekend the stories dropped and just hours after the Chinese government dismissed Wang as a lying fraudster, the Taiwanese government stopped Mr Xiang and his wife Gong Qing — also alleged by Wang to be linked to COSTIND — as they attempted to leave the country. It has barred them from leaving while an investigation is underway.

As Mr Xiang and his wife were stopped at the border, the Taiwanese government revealed that, when the couple sought approval to invest in a real estate company in 2016, they were rejected on security grounds. China Innovation Investment Ltd. officials Xiang Xin and his wife Gong Qing get out of a car at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Taiwan. Credit:EBC Loading “Their relationship with China’s People’s Liberation Army was extraordinarily close,” Chang Ming-pin, executive secretary of the commission at Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs that reviews foreign investments, said in an interview with The New York Times. Unpicking Mr Wang’s claims — currently the focus of Taiwanese and Western intelligence agencies— is, according to one security official, difficult and painstaking. Some of them may never be corroborated, others have already been assessed as credible. A former Australian intelligence official told The Age and Herald last week that the US is particularly interested in Mr Xiang’s military networks.