How US turned Hong Kong-born man into a spy

A Hong Kong-born man with US citizenship who was sentenced to life in prison for spying in China posed as a "patriotic philanthropist" to pry for information, the Ministry of State Security revealed yesterday.

John Leung Shing-wan, a Hong Kong permanent resident, was sentenced to life imprisonment by Suzhou's Intermediate People's Court in May, two years after he was arrested in Jiangsu on April 15, 2021, for spying.

The court also deprived him of political rights for life and confiscated property valued at 500,000 yuan (HK$564,000).

In an article yesterday, the ministry said Leung, 78, who was born in 1945, moved to the United States in 1983 to run a restaurant. He was approached by US intelligence agents three years later.

In 1989, the US spy agency recruited Leung and promised to pay him US$1,000 (HK$7,800) a month for intelligence. Leung obtained US citizenship in the same year.

The US forged Leung's resume of studying in a British university, serving as an official in the United Nations and joining the Vietnam War. To enhance his influence in the overseas Chinese community, the agency gave him money so he could serve as the leader of Chinese groups by making donations, the ministry said.

The US also told Leung to launch charitable donations in China so that he could pose as a patriotic philanthropist.

The ministry said Leung then got close to Chinese officials in the US to gather intelligence and he monitored Chinese people in the US.

"Once Leung obtained information of Chinese people carrying out official duties in the US, he would report to the US agency and follow its order to bring the officials to hotels and restaurants where surveillance cameras were installed," the ministry said.

"He even set up pornographic traps to threaten the Chinese officials and turn them to the US side."

The ministry said Leung also helped the agency pretend there were Chinese spies in the US.

"Under the direction of several US spies, Leung collected a large amount of information related to China and the US agency awarded him a medal of merit," it said.

As international flights were suspended in 2020 due to the pandemic, the US agency, which was eager to get information, sent Leung to the mainland via Hong Kong.

He was arrested after state security obtained evidence of his spying activities.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com