A member of faculty at the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) has been stripped of his permanent residency in Singapore, after being identified as an agent of influence of a foreign country.

In a five-paragraph statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday evening, it was revealed that China-born Professor Huang Jing, a U.S. citizen, as well as his wife, Shirley Yang Xiuping, will have to leave the country permanently, as a consequence of this decision. Both will have their permanent residency status in Singapore revoked.

The country Huang is said to have represented has not been named, but Huang is a Lee Foundation professor on US-China relations. His research areas, according to an academic page on the LKYSPP's site, include:

• Asian security
• China development policy
• China provincial-central government relations
• China-India relations
• Energy policy
• Environmental policy and economics
• International security
• Sustainable development
• Water management, governance and policy

Huang obtained his PhD in political science at Harvard University.

Additionally, the MHA says Huang influenced a key member of the LKYSPP's leadership by providing him with certain "information" that was aimed at changing Singapore's foreign policy toward the country he was an agent for.

It did not state who this senior member is, however.

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Here's the MHA's full statement:

CANCELLATION OF SINGAPORE PERMANENT RESIDENCE (SPR) STATUS – HUANG JING AND YANG XIUPING

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.

2 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.

3 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”.

4 Huang’s wife, Yang, was aware that Huang was acting through his position at the LKYSPP to advance the agenda of a foreign country.

5 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.

Ministry of Home Affairs

4 Aug 2017

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