Huang Jing is the name on everyone's lips, and search engines.

The professor at The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy who is currently suspended without pay, was identified as a foreign agent of influence, though he vehemently denied the allegations against him.

And one of the sites those info-hungry Singaporeans are turning to for answers is Quora, which functions like Yahoo answers, but with a classier name.

Here is the question posed on Quora.

Understandable question.

Here is the answer provided by dedicated Quora user Lin Xieyi.

"From the recent news article, we know he is a US citizen and works for China’s Xinhua News Agency. He tried to influence Singapore’s foreign policy, (probably trying to encourage Singapore to be more proactive in provoking China, after Philippines had backed off?)

There are tons of Chinese spying for the United States worldwide. He is probably a CIA agent working for the US government, gathering intelligence on Singapore’s foreign policy stance with China.[1] People would have let down their guard since he is a Chinese and will never think that the US government will trust him and made him a CIA agent. This work to his advantage. This fiasco tells the world that no matter how staunchly you support the United States, the US will still spy on you. Recall the PRISM scandal which affected Western leaders after the Snowden defection.[2]

If he is an agent for China, he would have been denied entry to the US and probably had his US citizenship revoked since Singapore is the United States staunch ally.[3]

“a US State Department official said: “We are aware of the press release from Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs and media reports regarding a US citizen. We have no further information to share due to privacy considerations.”[4]"

Lin's stance is that Huang Jing is a CIA agent, and is the perfect candidate because he is Chinese and no one would have suspected him.

Lin then offered up a completely unrelated spy program which collected Internet communications from American Internet companies.

Bilahari responds

This Olympic-level mental gymnastics was picked up by Ambassador-at-large Bilahari Kausikan, who had this to say.

"This is the sort of stuff we must expect, intended to confuse the issue. Some of it will come from the seemingly neutral or well-meaning or the naive or from those whom Lenin used to call 'useful idiots'."

Ouch.

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For those unsure, a useful idiot was how Lenin described those who were unknowingly manipulated by leaders into performing for a cause they weren't fully aware of.

Double ouch.

Lin, who according to his profile studied in the Anglo-Chinese School (ACS), will most likely not be daunted in continuing to answer questions on Quora.

As he has when he defended China's decision to ban Justin Bieber, or mocked the returns Singapore has gained from allying with the West instead of China, and bemoaning our bigoted mentality for not feeling prouder of S'pore's Chinese roots.

His thoughts on China's Belt and Road development are also particularly damning to those who view it as a threat rather than an opportunity.

"First of all, it is time to drop our Sinkie mentality and think out of this “kiasi” box once and for all.

Why must it be viewed from the perspective of a “threat”? Why must everything emanating from mainland China be contrued as a threat? Why are we still remaining in this Cold War mentality while everyone else has moved on? If that is all we can conclude from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), then we deserved to be the loser in this once-in-a-lifetime global economic banquet. We should see things from another angle and view it as sown sort of healthy competition to spur is to be more innovative and efficient."