The seemingly explosive spy expose in Australia was shown on Friday to be what it always was, a damp squib, when the country's Daily Telegraph newspaper ran a report questioning the claims of Wang Liqiang, the self-proclaimed Chinese spy.
Citing sources from the country's security and intelligence agencies, the report said the claims of Wang, who had billed himself as a Chinese spy in control of high-level operations in Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as Australia, were at best "highly dubious".
In the same vein, media reports in Taiwan last week also raised a series of doubts about Wang's exaggeration and bluffing.