The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has revoked the Permanent Residency of American citizen, Professor Huang Jing after identifying him as “an agent of influence of a foreign country” for knowingly interacting with intelligence organisations and agents of foreign country and cooperating with them to influence the Singapore Government’s foreign policy and public opinion in Singapore.
The Ministry has cancelled the Permanent Residency of Huang’s wife, Yang Xiuping, as well since she was aware that her husband was using his position as a senior professor “to advance the agenda of a foreign country.” The couple has also been permanently banned from re-entering the country.
In a statement released today, the MHA charged that Huang used his position as 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) to “deliberately and covertly advance the agenda of a foreign country at Singapore’s expense. He did this as he collaborated with foreign intelligence agents.”
Huang is charged with engaging and disseminating “privileged information” about a foreign country to prominent and influential Singaporeans, with the aim of influencing their opinion in the favour of that country. This, the MHA asserted, represents subversion and represents foreign interference in domestic politics.
One of the people Huang shared such “privileged information” with was a senior member of the LKYSPP so that the member could convey the information to the Singapore Government. The senior member eventually relayed the information to “very senior public officials who were in a position to direct Singapore’s foreign policy. However, the Singapore Government declined to act on the “privileged information.””
MHA asserted that the clear intention was to use the information at hand to cause the Singapore Government to change its foreign policy. The ministry also said that Huang recruited others to aid his operations.
Huang is still in Singapore and has challenged MHA’s accusations, indicating that he would seek help from the US embassy in Singapore. He told the South China Morning Post:
“It’s nonsense to identify me as ‘an agent of influence’ for a foreign country. And why didn’t they identify which foreign country they’re referring to? Is it the US or China?”
This is not the first time that Huang has been in the news. Last year, the police were called in after he gave a taxi driver a $1 tip and told him to ‘step out and show some respect’.
https://theindependent.sg.sg/prc-prof-from-lky-school-wants-cabby-to-kowtow-to-him/