Because One Person Involved In Espionage, All Singaporeans Are Potentially Suspected

Illustration (Unsplash / Chuttersnap)

JAKARTA - Due to the case of a Singaporean who was caught spying for China in the United States (US), the international public's trust in all Singaporeans was threatened. Especially about how China recruits intelligence from the lion country.

The Chinese spy from Singapore is Jun Wei Yeo, a 39-year-old academic, as reported by Reuters. The man, also known as Dickson Yeo, pleaded guilty to a US court held on Friday July 24 for acting as an illegal intelligence agent for China. He will return to trial in October and is expected to face up to 10 years in prison.

The Singapore Interior Ministry said in a brief statement that it had been aware of Yeo's case since his arrest by US authorities in November 2019. Since then Yeo has received assistance from the consular post.

Court documents explain how Yeo was originally lured into becoming Chinese intelligence four years ago. It all started when he attended a forum in Beijing. During the forum, Yeo presented his studies on Southeast Asian politics and moved to the US in January 2019.

"A fool like this can make all Singaporeans suspect," said academic and former Singapore diplomat Bilahari Kausikan. The statement he uploaded via Facebook was a response to the espionage case.

Recruiter Yeo initially claimed to represent a think tank based in China, then offered to pay for political reports and information. However Yeo realized later that some of the recruiter's contacts were intelligence agents. Tasked with finding people with non-public information about politics, economics and diplomacy, Yeo focused first on Southeast Asia, before turning to the US.

When Yeo moved to the US, the person in charge of him told Yeo to communicate on several phones to avoid detection. Using fake consulting and business networking site LinkedIn, Yeo reaches out to people, targets those with financial or work problems, and then pays them to write reports. Among those he attracted was a civilian with a high level of security clearance working on the US military's fighter jet program.

Yeo's lecturer at Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Huang Jing, is an ethnic Chinese with an American nationality. He was accused by Singaporean authorities in 2017 of being an agent of a foreign country. Huang Jing denied the accusations, although he was never sentenced but his residence permit was revoked.

Huang Jing, who is currently working in Beijing, said he was shocked and happy that Yeo had been arrested. Huang Jing said that Yeo had a sense of self-insecurity and was obsessed with being "someone."

Threat to Singapore

Yeo betrayed his own country by becoming a spy for the Bamboo Curtain Country. It takes advantage of the close security ties between Singapore and China. Although Singapore itself is bound by its own rules to pursue a neutral foreign policy.

Yeo's case reinforces Western concerns that Singapore is an easy target for China to recruit educated agents. In addition, the Singapore passport also gives holders easy access to travel to various countries.

Singapore is often referred to as the Switzerland of Asia because of its wealth, international financial network and neutrality. In addition, Singapore is also one of the most politically stable countries in the region, in which the US and China have an interest. Meanwhile, China is Singapore's biggest trading partner, as it is for many countries in Asia.

Bilveer Singh of the National University of Singapore's department of political science, said Singapore's openness and strategic location made it a source for many countries to source intelligence and influential agents. Yo's case may not be the only one around. A Mexican researcher from another university in Singapore, Duke-NUS, was arrested in the US earlier this year for being an agent for Russia.

At loggerheads with the US on trade and other issues, China denies having knowledge of Yeo's case. China actually turned to accuse the US of using espionage claims to tarnish China's name.