US-China row deepens after Singaporean admits spying
A SINGAPOREAN man in the US has admitted being an agent for Chinese intelligence, setting up a fake consulting firm in Washington as part of an elaborate plot to obtain information from government and Pentagon officials.
Jun Wei Yeo, 39, also known as Dickson Yeo, pleaded guilty to a charge of acting within the US as an illegal agent of a foreign power.
It marked the latest development in an escalation of tensions between the US and China last week, which saw titfor-tat consulate closures. The US shut China’s consulate in Houston, calling it “a hub for spying”. Beijing responded by ordering Washington to close its consulate in Chengdu.
According to the US justice department, Yeo was recruited by China when he was a PhD student at the National University of Singapore, and went on to be an academic researcher at the George Washington University in the American capital.
After posting online job opportunities at a fake consulting firm, he received 400 CVs, 90 per cent of them from people with US government or military security clearance.
He passed some of the CVs to Chinese intelligence, according to court documents filed by the justice department. In addition, he searched through
‘Yeo used career networking sites and a false consulting firm to lure Americans’
LinkedIn looking for people who might have “non-public information”, and then paid them thousands of dollars to write reports for “clients in Asia” – in reality the Chinese government.
John Demers, US assistant attorney general for national security, said: “The Chinese government uses an array of duplicity to obtain sensitive information from unsuspecting Americans. Yeo was central to one such scheme, using career networking sites and a false consulting firm to lure Americans.”
An FBI spokesman said: “The FBI urges citizens, especially those holding security clearances, to be cautious when being approached by individuals on social media sites with implausible career opportunities.”
Yeo made frequent trips to China and was arrested at a US airport as he returned. He will be sentenced in October and the offence carries a potential maximum of 10 years in jail.
Australia has rejected Beijing’s territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea in a formal declaration to the United Nations, aligning itself more closely with Washington in the escalating row.
In a statement filed on Thursday, Australia said there was “no legal basis” to several disputed Chinese claims in the sea, including those related to the construction of artificial islands on small shoals and reefs.