Huang Jing, Chinese-American academic expelled by Singapore, is working in Beijing and has ‘no hard feelings’

BEIJING — The China-born American academic expelled from Singapore two years ago over accusations that he tried to influence foreign policy for an unknown government is now a professor in Beijing. And he says he has “no hard feelings” against the Lion City.

Professor Huang Jing, who is permanently banned from Singapore, said that he spent a year in Washington DC after parting ways with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) at the National University of Singapore, to “prove” himself.

“I worked the whole year in Washington DC, my home, to show that I am not what Singapore implied I am. Right now, Singapore has not clarified which foreign country I work with, so I wanted to show that at least the US doesn’t think I am working for whoever,” he told the South China Morning Post on Monday (June 17), on the sidelines of a forum to mark the 45th anniversary of Malaysia-China ties.

Prof Huang, who is the dean of the Institute of International and Regional Studies at Beijing Language and Culture University, added: “I don’t have any hard feelings against Singapore. I think they overplayed their hand for whatever reason, but Singapore has treated me very well.”

Prof Huang, who was director of the LKYSPP’s Centre on Asia and Globalisation and had lived in Singapore for close to a decade, said he had been prepared to retire in the island nation and that the claims had caught him by surprise.

In August 2017, the expert on US-China relations was identified by Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as an “agent of influence of a foreign country”. He was accused of trying to influence the decisions of senior Singapore officials by passing them “privileged” information.

“He did this in collaboration with foreign intelligence agents,” the Singapore government said in a statement. “This amounts to subversion and foreign interference in Singapore’s domestic politics.”

The government did not name the country Prof Huang was allegedly working for, but many assumed it was China, where he was born.

The permanent residency status of Prof Huang and his wife, Ms Shirley Yang Xiuping, were revoked, and their appeal was rejected by the authorities. The couple left Singapore on Sept 7 that year, about two weeks after they were informed about the outcome of the appeal.

At the time, MHA had called Prof Huang an "agent of influence" and said that he had used his position to “deliberately and covertly advance the agenda of a foreign country at Singapore’s expense”.

It also said that Prof Huang “knowingly interacted” with intelligence organisations and agents of a foreign country, and co-operated with them to influence Singapore’s foreign policy and public opinion here.

The professor has denied the allegations.

Born in mainland China, Prof Huang went to the United States in the 1980s and completed his PhD at the Department of Government at Harvard University. Before he joined the LKYSPP, he was, according to his profile page at the school’s website then, a senior fellow at the John L Thornton China Centre at the Brookings Institution and a Shorenstein fellow at Stanford University.

He had written pro-Beijing commentaries for mainland newspapers including the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, and had been quoted by publications such as The New York Times and the Post.

Said Prof Huang, without elaborating: “Thinking back, I made some mistakes, for which I should pay the price. But bygones are bygones, the world is very big. I try to be a good scholar and deliver some public good, do my research. Whatever Singapore did or has done or will do, they have their own reasons and interests to take care of and I understand that. So I am fine.”

At the forum, Prof Huang spoke about the US-China trade war and its impact on Asean, later telling reporters that South-east Asian nations should remain neutral in the face of the tussle between the two superpowers. It was dangerous for them to take sides as both China and the US could “retaliate”.

“The worst that can happen is that South-east Asia’s internal diversity is exploited by any major powers from the outside world. I really believe that it works for South-east Asian interests and China’s interests for the region to keep a non-aligned or neutral position,” he said, adding that a strong and united South-east Asia could “really play a role as stabiliser” in the region. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST