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The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has just announced the cancellation of Singapore Permanent Residence (SPR) Status of two United State citizens; Huang Jing, a professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and his spouse, Yang Xiuping.
MHA claims that Huang has been identified as an agent of influence of a foreign country. He knowingly interacted with intelligence organisations and agents of the foreign country, and co-operated with them to influence the Singapore Government’s foreign policy and public opinion in Singapore.
MHA further claims that Huang used his senior position in the LKYSPP to deliberately and covertly advance the agenda of a foreign country at Singapore’s expense and conducted his activities in collaboration with foreign intelligence agents which amounts to subversion and foreign interference in Singapore’s domestic politics.
However, there is no mention by MHA of which foreign country is Huang acting for.
Stating that Huang and his wife’s continued presence in Singapore are undesirable, MHA noted that both will be permanently banned from re-entering Singapore.
The National University of Singapore (NUS) said to media that Prof Huang has been suspended without pay with immediate effect.
"This is a matter of serious concern," said an NUS spokesperson. "NUS does not tolerate such acts of foreign interference, even as we continue to value and uphold the diverse and international character of our university,"
The Controller of Immigration has cancelled the Entry and Re-Entry Permits of Huang Jing (Huang) and his wife Shirley Yang Xiuping (Yang) on 4 Aug 2017 pursuant to Section 14(4) of the Immigration Act. The Controller acted after he was satisfied that Huang was a Prohibited Immigrant under Section 8(1) of the Immigration Act, after it was determined that Huang was an undesirable immigrant pursuant to Section 8(3)(k) for engaging in activities inimical to Singapore’s national interests. Yang was declared a Prohibited Immigrant under Section 8(1) on the basis that she is a family member of Huang under Section 8(3)(n) of the Immigration Act. The couple are US citizens.
Huang was Director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation, and Lee Foundation Professor on US-China Relations, at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP). He has been identified as an agent of influence of a foreign country. He knowingly interacted with intelligence organisations and agents of the foreign country, and co-operated with them to influence the Singapore Government’s foreign policy and public opinion in Singapore. To this end, he engaged prominent and influential Singaporeans and gave them what he claimed was “privileged information” about the foreign country, so as to influence their opinions in favour of that country. Huang also recruited others in aid of his operations.
Huang used other avenues as well. For example, he gave supposedly “privileged information” to a senior member of the LKYSPP, in order that it be conveyed 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. However, the Singapore Government declined to act on the “privileged information”.
Huang’s wife, Yang, was aware that Huang was acting through his position at the LKYSPP to advance the agenda of a foreign country.
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. 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. Both will be permanently banned from re-entering Singapore.
Below is Prof Huang's profile which has been removed from LKYSPP's website.
Prof Huang is the Lee Foundation Professor on US-China Relations at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School). He is the author of Factionalism in Chinese Communist Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2000), which won the prestigious Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize, Crisis and Challenges in US-China Relations, 1989-1993 (2003), and Inseparable Separation; the Making of China’s Taiwan Policy (2010). He also edited six book volumes over China-India relations, Asia’s environmental policies, South China Sea, and the development of Russia’s Far East. Huang has published numerous articles, book chapters, columns and op-eds on Chinese elite politics, China’s development strategy and foreign policy, US-China relations, Sino-Japanese relations, Sino-Indian relations, China’s military and its political role, security issues in the Asia Pacific, Taiwan, and the North Korea Nuclear issue.
At LKY School, Prof Huang initiated and chaired numerous projects, including the Consortium on multilateral international cooperation in the development of Russia’s Far East, with the funding of 3 million US dollars from Norway and Singapore, (The Consortium consists of the heads of leading think tanks from Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Norway, and Singapore), the China-India project, with funding over 3 million Singapore dollars, China-Japan-US trilateral Track-II dialogue. He also initiated and chaired the projects on China-India-Japan’s energy policies and policymaking process, Asia-EU energy security, and Asia’s environmental polies. Prof Huang also initiated and mentors the China-Japan Young Leader Forum.
Before coming to LKY School, Prof Huang was a Senior Fellow at the John Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution (2004—2008), a Shorentein Fellow at Stanford University (2002-2003), Director of the Asia Studies Program and Associate Professor of Political Science (1994-2004) at Utah State University, and Lecturer at Harvard University (2013-14). As a faculty member, Prof Huang was tenured in USA in 1998.
At Brookings, Prof. Huang played a major role in initiating and organising the projects of the Trilateral (US-China-Japan) Track II Dialogues (2005-2007), Asian Regionalism, China’s Energy Security and Policy, and the US-India-China Dialogue. He was a co-leader of the multi-year US-China Crisis Management project (with Michael Swaine of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Iain Johnston of Harvard University). He also chaired the Tibet project and frequently advised the Tibetan leaders in Exile on international affairs. He has since developed a good relationship with the Dalai Lama and his special envoy Lodi Gyari.
Prof Huang was a Residential Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in 2012 and is a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Fujitsu-JAIMS Foundation Japan, the Board of Directors Keppel Land, the Board of Wasion Group, the Advisory Board of the European-House Ambrosetti, the Scientific Board of the Stars Foundation, UBS Wolfberg, the Steering Committee of the NUS Research Institute in Suzhou, and the WEF Global Agenda Council. He was Fulbright Professor (2002). Prof Huang also serves as a Senior Overseas Economic Analysts for the Xinhua News Agency and an overseas advisor to the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies. He is consulted frequently by a wide range of government, education, research, business and non-profit organisations in China, U.S., Europe, Taiwan, Japan, India, South Korea, Vietnam, Russia, Norway, Germany, Netherland and Singapore on policy issues, and has authored numerous policy papers.
Prof Huang is appointed as a Prestigious International Scholars（海外名师）by the Shanghai Municipal Government.
Prof Huang is a recipient of numerous fellowships/grants from various foundations, including the Fulbright Fellowship, the Shorentein Fellowship, the Harvard-Yenching Fellowship, the MacArthur Foundation, the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Asian Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Melon Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the American Philosophical Society.
Prof Huang received his Ph.D. (Government) from Harvard University, MA (History) from Fudan University, and BA (English) from Sichuan University.