Laura Zhang
US citizen Huang Jing, whose Singapore permanent residence identity has been revoked after the Singapore Government identified him as being an agent of foreign influence, said on Tuesday (Aug 8) he had appealed the decision to expel him.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had cancelled the permanent residence of Huang Jing, a professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and of his wife, Yang Xiuping, also a US citizen.
However, the ministry did not identify “the foreign country” with which he was said to be interacting. The mystery had spurred mixed conjecture, suspicion and curiosity in the wild world of netizens. Huang also declined comment on the nature of the accusations against him.
US or China?
Dr Huang has been famous for being anti-China in his talks.
Mandarin Youtuber Fashion Stopper stated, “Huang Jing is constantly anti-PRC in his English lectures and always anti-Singapore in his Mandarin lectures on Chinese TV.”
Here is a typical anti-China lecture he conducted in 2012:
Netizens on Cqtimes.cn openly insulted him, “you do not deserve to be a Chinese. Holding a U.S. citizenship doesn’t grant you the right to slam your motherland.”
Zaobao “He betrayed two countries at one go.”
However, he has been involved in decades-long china analysis, as an expert in China politics.
“He must be a spy from China. This is an unusual measure for Americans.” said netizens from Voachinese.com.
However, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China claimed that it does not know about Dr Huang’s objectives.
Many Chinese netizens postulate Huang’s influence would aggravate the already sour bilateral relations between China and Singapore.
One of the top Weibo comments is “Where is freedom of speech, Lee Jia Po (a common tease on Weibo, meaning Lee family’s Singapore caused by Lee’s saga recently)?”
Weibo netizens also conjecture that the U.S. would not appoint a migrant Chinese citizen to spy in Singapore. They also suggest that he might be one of those undercover Chinese in the U.S.
Youtube comments also went, “he doesn’t deserve to be a professor as he is not serving the academics but having second thoughts on another country’s policy.”
Graduated from Sichuan University English Language Major, Dr Huang then Studied History in Fudan University under for Master’s Degree, before he was admitted to Harvard Graduate School for his PhD. He converted his PRC status to U.S. citizenship afterwards.
Objectives?
Singapore blogger akikonomu analyses that Dr Huang is involved in “lobbying and track II diplomacy”, not spying (Track II diplomacy is diplomacy conducted by unofficial, informal, or non-governmental actors and agents).
“Track II diplomacy can only exist in a country that has a certain freedom of speech to allow lobbying, robustness of debate to prevent one-sided lobbying, independent thinking to critically analyse debates, and a commitment to guaranteeing the safety of such diplomacy.” wrote akikonomu.
“By expelling Dr Huang, the Ministry of Home Affairs risks sending a signal that one, some, or quite possibly all of these are no longer true in Singapore.”