Its most famous claim is that Holt faked his own death; specifically, rather than drowning, he boarded a Chinese submarine stationed off the Australian coast and lived the rest of his life in Beijing.

[4] After an initial tip-off from an Iraqi civil servant, Titcombe claimed to have "gradually pieced together a more comprehensive story from a series of meetings with several different Chinese government officials".

[8] Furthermore, Holt was stridently anti-Communist,[9] the large sums of money he supposedly received were never reflected in his lifestyle,[10] he was highly unlikely to have deserted his wife and children,[11] and the waters off Cheviot Beach were much too shallow for a submarine to submerge.

[13] James Rusbridger, a British espionage researcher, wrote: "Were it not for the distress the allegations caused the Holt family, such a tale might be marginally amusing and deserve a short-lived place on the fiction shelves.

[15] Gareth Evans, Australia's Attorney-General at the time, said "the whole tale seems to be straight out of fruitcake land",[16] while the Chinese government issued a statement describing it as "sheer fabrication".