Singapore denies improper link-up with China's Huawei

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Singapore will allow US officials to inspect the work of a research institute linked to a Chinese telecoms firm which Washington suspects of espionage, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Mr K. Shanmugam, the foreign minister, told officials on a visit to the US capital this week that no improper transfer of technology took place between the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) and Huawei Technologies, the ministry said.

The IME was thrust into the spotlight last month after a report cast doubt on the apparent suicide of one of its former researchers - US electronics engineer Shane Todd, who was found hanged in his Singapore flat in June 2012.

Mr Todd's family says he may have been murdered because of a project involving state-linked IME and Huawei, but both have said that talks on a joint project did not progress beyond preliminary stages.