Singapore cancels permanent residence of ‘U.S. citizen’

Singapore on Friday canceled the permanent residence status of a professor at a prominent postgraduate school whom it identified as a U.S. citizen and an agent of influence by a foreign country.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement that Huang Jing, a professor of U.S.-China relations at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), “knowingly interacted with intelligence organisations and agents of the foreign country”.

The government also revoked the permanent residence of Huang’s wife, Shirley Yang-Xiuping, both of which were unavailable for comment as at time of this report.

The ministry identified the couple as U.S. citizens but did not identify the country with which Huang was said to be interacting.

“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,” the ministry said.

The LKYSPP, named after modern Singapore’s founding father, is a postgraduate school of the National University of Singapore which it says “educates and trains the next generation of Asian policy-makers and leaders”.

A spokesperson for the university said in a statement it had suspended Huang without pay with immediate effect while it works with the ministry on the matter.

“As these permits have been canceled, we would not be able to continue with his employment,” the spokesperson said in a statement, adding it could not comment on the specifics of the case.

The ministry said Huang had engaged with prominent and influential Singaporeans, giving them what he claimed to be “privileged information” about the foreign country with which he was interacting.

Such information had been passed to a senior member of LKYSPP, which was then conveyed by that member to the Singapore government.

“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”.

“He also recruited others for his operations”, the ministry said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Singapore was not immediately available for comment.