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Singaporean teen who identified as 'East Asian supremacist' detained under ISA
The student aspired to replicate the 2019 Christchurch mosque attack in Singapore with other like-minded far-right individuals.
Nick Lee Xing Qiu's elbow tattoo of a sonnenrad, and a custom-made T-shirt with a totenkopf symbol. (Photo: Internal Security Department)
Charmaine Jacob
10 Feb 2025 02:00PM (Updated: 10 Feb 2025 02:11PM
SINGAPORE: An 18-year-old Singaporean student who identified as an "East Asian supremacist" and was radicalised by violent far-right extremist ideologies has been detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
Nick Lee Xing Qiu, who is of Chinese ethnicity, had aspired to conduct attacks against Malays and Muslims in Singapore. He believed that the Chinese, Korean and Japanese ethnicities were superior, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said on Monday (Feb 10).
Lee was issued with a detention order in December last year. He is the third Singaporean youth with far-right extremist ideologies to be dealt with under the ISA.
The first case involved a then 16-year-old detained in December 2020 for planning machete attacks on mosques. The second case also involved a 16-year-old who was issued with a restriction order in November 2023 after authorities found that he identified as a white supremacist and aspired to conduct attacks overseas.
SELF-RADICALISATION PROCESS
Lee first started developing hostility towards Muslims in early 2023 after encountering Islamophobic and far-right content on social media. He spent several hours a day searching for and consuming extremist online content, according to ISD.In June 2023, Lee searched for the livestream video footage of far-right terrorist Brenton Tarrant’s attacks against Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Mar 15, 2019.
He watched the footage repeatedly and came to idolise Tarrant. He then downloaded video game modifications and role-played as Tarrant killing Muslims at the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch.
By early 2024, Lee's radicalisation deepened and he had developed a strong enmity towards Malays and Muslims, as well as other ethnicities traditionally targeted by far-right extremists including Jews, Mexicans, African Americans and Indians.
"He was also supportive of white supremacy because he felt that Islam was a threat to white culture," ISD said.
He had come across ethno-supremacist ideas that made him believe that Chinese, Korean and Japanese were superior ethnicities, resonating with them given his Chinese ethnicity and antipathy towards Muslims.
In September 2024, Lee got a tattoo on his right elbow of a sonnenrad, a symbol that was seen in Tarrant's manifesto and on his rucksack during the Christchurch attack. He also purchased T-shirts with custom printings of symbols associated with neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other far-right groups.
ENVISIONED STARTING A "RACE WAR"
Lee aspired to carry out attacks against Muslims in Singapore with other far-right individuals that he spoke to online. Although he claimed that he was too afraid to conduct an attack alone, he admitted he would have participated in attacks together with those he met online."His attack aspirations included conducting a Tarrant-style attack on Muslims at a mosque in Singapore using homemade guns, knives and Molotov cocktails," ISD said.
Lee had hoped to livestream the attack online, dedicating it to Tarrant.
He also thought about throwing Molotov cocktails at his Malay-Muslim neighbours during a religious holiday to maximise casualties. But apart from enquiring online on how to make a Molotov cocktail, he took no further preparations towards this.
The ISD also said Lee was deeply convinced by the Great Replacement Theory, which claims that white populations in the West are in danger of being replaced by non-white immigrants.
He believed that violence was necessary to prevent the Chinese majority in Singapore from being displaced by what he perceived to be a rapidly growing Malay population.
Lee envisioned starting a "race war" between Chinese and Malays in Singapore, by creating anti-Malay and anti-Muslim propaganda to post online, hoping to create animosity between the two races.
He started a social media account in late 2024 to instigate others to conduct attacks against Malays and Muslims. This account was used to repost far-right extremist videos, and he uploaded about 20 self-made videos glorifying far-right terrorists and containing anti-Malay and anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Lee's family, teachers and schoolmates were unaware of his radicalisation and there is no indication that he tried to influence them with his violent extremist views, ISD said. His attack plans were aspirational with no set timeline and investigations into his online contacts have found no imminent threat to Singapore.
"Far-right extremism is a growing security concern globally, and Singapore has not been immune to this threat," ISD said.
Although the movement is often associated with white supremacy, its broader messages of ethno-religious chauvinism, racism and xenophobia can appeal to non-whites.
"ISD will take firm action against any individual in Singapore who supports, promotes, undertakes or makes preparations to undertake armed violence, regardless of how they rationalise such violence ideologically or where the violence takes place," it said.
