GEIS-新闻详情

Line crossed under foreign interference law when people promote foreign political interests: Experts

2024-02-04 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-新加坡原网页

SINGAPORE – Individuals may express strong feelings about a foreign entity, but they cross the line under Singapore’s foreign interference laws when their behaviour veers into the political realm, experts said.

On Feb 2, a Hong Kong-born businessman became the first person to be dealt with under the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act (Fica), a law that empowers the authorities here to deal with foreign interference in domestic politics.

Mr Philip Chan Man Ping, 59, a naturalised Singapore citizen, was served notice that the authorities intend to designate him a politically significant person.

Mr Chan was assessed to have shown susceptibility to being influenced by foreign actors, and a willingness to advance their interests, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said, without naming any foreign entity.

His activities were also assessed to be directed towards a political end in Singapore, MHA added.

The Straits Times had reported that Mr Chan, managing director of several real estate investment firms, was invited to attend China’s annual Two Sessions parliamentary meetings in March 2023 as an “overseas Chinese representative”.

He was among 30 such representatives from around the world invited by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body to the Chinese government.

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In 2014, Chinese state media outlet Global Times quoted a representative from the CPPCC National Committee as saying that overseas representatives need to have “expertise in a certain sphere, have the capability to participate in politics, stay influential among overseas Chinese, and most importantly, love China”.

Mr Barry Desker, a distinguished fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), said that in taking part as an overseas Chinese representative of the CPPCC, Mr Chan represented that Singapore is a “Chinese constituency in such Chinese parliamentary proceedings”.

“This is totally unacceptable,” said the former diplomat, who added that Mr Chan appears to have used his appointments to advance Chinese interests in Singapore.

Mr Benjamin Ang, senior fellow and head of the Centre of Excellence for National Security at RSIS, said an ordinary person in Singapore who does business overseas or has strong feelings towards other countries would not be designated a politically significant person.

Yet an influential person would more likely be a target of foreign influence and be of public interest, especially if he or she has given speeches and interviews or written articles that promote the political interests of a foreign entity, added Mr Ang.

“Political ends, as defined in the Act, are different from saying positive things about a country or a culture, which would not be covered by Fica,” he said.

Dr Shashi Jayakumar, executive director of geopolitical risk consultancy SJKGeostrategic Advisory, agreed, saying: “My reading of what our leaders have said in the recent past is that one can trace, and be proud of, one’s ethnic roots and ancestry – be it from China, India or any other nation – and indeed maintain these links.

“But, in my view, it is not acceptable, based on these links, to develop a current loyalty to that nation, and to advocate the interests of that nation, simply based on ancestry or ethnicity if that loyalty supersedes the sense of being Singaporean and supersedes the national interests of Singapore.”

Mr Chan was assessed to have shown susceptibility to being influenced by foreign actors, and a willingness to advance their interests, the Ministry of Home Affairs said. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO FILE