Singapore Arrests Its Citizens Who Become Spies Of China In The US

Photo illustration (Tingey Injury Law Firm / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Singapore authorities arrested a man when he returned from the United States (US). The man was arrested for espionage for China while in the US and authorities will investigate whether he poses a security risk.

Quoting Reuters, Wednesday, December 30, the man named Dickson Yeo, who is a citizen of Singapore. He returned to Singapore after serving a prison sentence in the United States (US) for acting as an illegal agent of Chinese intelligence.

Singapore's Department of Homeland Security (ISD) will interview Yeo to find out if he was involved in activities that harm Singapore's security, he said in a statement. "Singapore will not allow its citizens to be subverted or used by any foreign actor for activities that are detrimental to our security and national interests," the ISD said.

"The government takes very seriously any Singaporean who engages in relations with a foreign government and engages in espionage or subversive activities at the behest of foreign powers," he said, adding that these individuals would be handled in accordance with Singapore law.

Yeo pleaded guilty in July 2020 to obtaining sensitive information from Americans under the direction of Chinese intelligence officials. He was adamant that he was spying on China even towards the end of his trial and he claimed he did not betray Singapore.

He is also fully aware of working for Chinese intelligence. Yeo met agents in China dozens of times and was given special treatment when traveling to China. The ISD noted that Yeo had admitted to US investigators that his "previous intelligence assignment targeted a country other than the US."

Yeo spied on the US for four years, after being recruited by Chinese intelligence officials in 2015, when he visited Beijing for a presentation on the political situation in Southeast Asia. He was then a PhD student at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and was tasked by Chinese intelligence to see and assess US citizens.

Its duties include spying on US military and government employees, who have access to valuable non-public information. Yeo admits that he paid US citizens to write reports which he then sent to the Chinese government without the author's knowledge.

He sets up fake political consultants to conduct spying and scour social networking sites to find his targets. He was arrested in the US in November 2019.

After news of Yeo's arrest broke, China denied recruiting him as a spy and accused the US of having reached "a very high level of suspicion." Yeo's PhD candidacy was stopped when the school became aware of his espionage activities.