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Professor Huang Jing was banned from Singapore, which accused him of acting as an “agent of influence” for a foreign government. Photo: AFP

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

  • Huang Jing was permanently banned from the city state over claims he tried to influence foreign policy for an unknown government
  • He says he has just spent a year in Washington to ‘prove’ himself but admits he ‘made some mistakes’
Singapore
The China-born American academic expelled from Singapore two years ago over accusations he tried to influence foreign policy for an unknown government is now a professor in Beijing – and says he has “no hard feelings” against the Lion City.

Huang Jing, who is permanently banned from Singapore, said 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, on the sidelines of a forum to mark the 45th anniversary of Malaysia-China ties.

What Singapore is saying by expelling China hand Huang Jing

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.”

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.

Born in mainland China, 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.

Singapore’s skyline. Huang said he had been prepared to retire in the island nation and that the claims had caught him by surprise. Photo: AFP
An expert on US-China relations, 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.

But in August 2017, 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,” said the Singapore government in a statement. “This amounts to subversion and foreign interference in Singapore’s domestic politics.” The government did not name the country Huang Jing was allegedly working for, but many assumed it was China, where he was born.

Indonesia shows frustration with Singapore over Indo-Pacific vision

Said 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, Huang spoke about the US-China trade war and its impact on Asean, later telling reporters that Southeast 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 Southeast Asia’s internal diversity is exploited by any major powers from the outside world. I really believe that it works for Southeast 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 Southeast Asia could “really play a role as stabiliser” in the region.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: ousted scholar has no hard feelings
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