On July 27, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin remarked that they were unaware of the Singaporean Dickson Yeo Jun Wei’s case of being an illegal agent of China in the United States and urged the US to stop its “smear” campaign.
Wang added that the US conducts espionage activities and that it was “open knowledge”.
He said: “It is open knowledge that the US runs an aggressive espionage and theft programme all around the globe, sparing not even its allies. There’s solid evidence for this.”
He added: “The world has seen the act of the real thief crying ‘stop the thief’ too many times. We urge the US to stop using the so called espionage issue to smear China.”
When he was pressed on Dickson Yeo’s case, Wang replied: “I’m not aware of what you just mentioned, but I would like to point out that lately, US law enforcement has been busy hyping up the so-called China infiltration and espionage issues to the point of paranoia.”
Wang’s comments came hot on the heels of the closing of the US consulate in Chengdu, Sichuan as a response to the US’ closing of the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas.
Tensions between the two countires are uncomfortably high as Wang told the media that the closure of the US consulate in Chengdu is a “legitimate and necessary response” to the US’ “unjustified” closing of the Chinese consulate in Houston.