A Singaporean national on Friday pleaded guilty to charges of being a spy of China, the US Department of Justice said.
Jun Wei Yeo, also known as Dickson Yeo, entered a plea of guilty to one count of acting within the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign power without first notifying the attorney general.
The Chinese government uses an array of duplicity to obtain sensitive information from unsuspecting Americans," said US Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's National Security Division John C Demers.
"Yeo was central to one such scheme, using career networking sites and a false consulting firm to lure Americans who might be of interest to the Chinese government. This is yet another example of the Chinese government's exploitation of the openness of American society," he said.
Yeo admitted that he not only provided valuable information to Chinese intelligence but also that he knowingly recruited others in the US to do the same, said FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Timothy R Slater.
As per the guilty plea, Yeo began working with Chinese intelligence officers as early as 2015, initially targeting other Asian countries, but then focusing on the US.
Meanwhile, US Federal prosecutors have charged four Chinese nationals with visa fraud for lying about their status as members of the Chinese Army, while they were conducting research in the US, the justice department said.
The FBI has arrested three of them, while the fourth, who is a fugitive, is currently being harboured at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, it said.
Each defendant has been charged with visa fraud. If convicted, they face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of USD 250,000.
