China affairs expert ‘permanently banned’ from Singapore: report
An academic from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) had his Singapore permanent residency cancelled and will be permanently banned from the country for working with a foreign government to influence the Republic’s foreign policy, the Straits Times said in a report on Friday (4 August).
Huang Jing had his PR cancelled on Friday (4 August) while his wife Shirley Yang Xiuping will also be permanently banned from Singapore, the Ministry of Home Affairs said, according to the report by the Straits Times. The couple are United States citizens.
Dr Huang was “an agent of influence of a foreign country” who worked with intelligence organisations and agents from that country, MHA said, without naming the country. The academic is currently an economic analyst for Xinhua News Agency and an advisor to China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies.
The Lee Foundation Professor on US-China relations at the LKY School is a China expert whose views were often sought by the media, the report said.
“Huang used his senior position in the LKYSPP to deliberately and covertly advance the agenda of a foreign country at Singapore’s expense. He did this in collaboration with foreign intelligence agents,” said MHA.
“This amounts to subversion and foreign interference in Singapore’s domestic politics. Huang’s continued presence in Singapore, and that of his wife, are therefore undesirable.”
The couple’s entry and re-entry permits have been cancelled, MHA added.
Yang was aware that her husband was using his position to promote a foreign country’s agenda, MHA said. Dr Huang had also provided “privileged information” about the foreign country to prominent Singaporeans, with the aim of creating positive opinions of that country, MHA said. Dr Huang also recruited others in his operations, MHA added.
Dr Huang provided “privileged information” to a senior member of the LKY School, so it could be passed on to the Singapore Government.
“The information was duly conveyed by that senior member of the LKYSPP to very senior public officials who were in a position to direct Singapore’s foreign policy. The clear intention was to use the information to cause the Singapore Government to change its foreign policy,” said MHA, adding that the Government declined to act on the information.
Dr Huang, who has taught at several universities in the US including Harvard, has published numerous opinion pieces in Singapore’s newspapers about China’s foreign policy and other topics, the ST report said.
