EDITORIAL — Chinese spy network

The speculative angle smacked of show biz with a bit of racism. But now a Chinese tycoon detained in Thailand, with no seeming political ax to grind in the Philippines, has linked Alice Guo to what he says is an international spying network operated by China’s Ministry of State Security.

In a documentary released this week by Al Jazeera’s 101 East, which is based in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, She Zhijiang said he was recruited in 2016 to be a Chinese spy by a man he met in the Philippines. In exchange, the man promised to get him cleared of charges in China for operating online gambling sites overseas, which is prohibited for all Chinese citizens anywhere in the world. The man delivered, and She managed to return several times to China between 2017 and 2019. The man also took him to Myanmar and Cambodia.

The report included footage of She attending the state dinner hosted at Malacañang in 2018 by then president Rodrigo Duterte for visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping.

To prove his claim of being a Chinese spy, She reportedly gave Al Jazeera access to documents, which included a dossier on a woman named Guo Hua Ping, born in China to Lin Wen Yi. Guo left China near the end of 2002. Her family’s address in China is reportedly the office of the local Communist Party of China. Using fingerprint analysis, Guo has been identified by the National Bureau of Investigation to be the same person as Alice Guo, who has been dismissed as mayor of Bamban, Tarlac for falsely claiming she was born in the Philippines.

In the documentary, She said his handler had put him in touch with Guo, who asked him in a mobile phone conversation for financial contribution to her election campaign. She claimed he rejected Guo’s request because he did not want to “offend the Philippine government.”

She, who talked to Al Jazeera from detention in Thailand, is fighting extradition to China, saying Beijing wants him dead because of his exposure “to secrets about Chinese state security and Belt and Road projects” involving espionage and intelligence gathering activities.

Guo pleaded not guilty yesterday to qualified human trafficking related to a Philippine offshore gaming operator hub in her compound in Bamban. Raiders said the POGO hub had a torture chamber and was involved in illegal activities including cyberscams, human and possibly drug trafficking, ransom kidnapping and suspected murder.

The report brings a new dimension to the ongoing inquiries involving Guo and her cohorts. Thai authorities are doing their homework. Philippine authorities must not drop the ball.