Shawn Huang Wei Zhong (

né The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Ingkiriwang; zh, s=黄伟中, p=Huáng Wěizhōng; born 19 July 1982) is a Singaporean politician and former fighter pilot. A member of the

People's Action Party The People's Action Party (PAP) is a major Conservatism, conservative political party in Singapore and is the governing contemporary political party represented in the Parliament of Singapore, followed by the opposition Workers' Party of Singap ...

(PAP), he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the

Taman Jurong Taman Jurong is a residential precinct in Jurong West, Singapore. It is one of the oldest residential precincts in Singapore and a division of Jurong GRC, with the area's HDB flats under the management of Jurong-Clementi Town Council and Shawn H ...

division of

West Coast–Jurong West GRC West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

since 2025, and previously the Jurong Spring division of

Jurong GRC The Jurong Group Representation Constituency was a five-member Group Representation Constituency (GRC) located in the western area of Singapore. The GRC consisted of a large section of Jurong, sections of Bukit Batok and areas near Upper Buk ...

between 2020 and 2025. Since 23 May 2025, Huang has been serving as Senior Parliamentary Secretary with the Ministry of Manpower and

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

. Before entering politics, he served as an

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it e ...

fighter pilot in the Singaporean Air Force (RSAF) between 2000 and 2018. He has also been a director at Tasek Jurong, a charity organisation, since 2014.

Early life and education

Huang graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

aeronautical engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

from the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academies, United States service academy in Air Force Academy, Colorado, Air Force Academy Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. I ...

in 2006. In 2015, he was awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship.

Career

Military career

Huang joined the

Republic of Singapore Air Force The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is the aerial service branch of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) responsible for controlling and defending the airspace of the country, and providing air support to the Army and Navy. It was establis ...

as a pilot trainee in 2001 and has over 1,000 flying hours on the CT4B, S211, A-4 Super Skyhawk and

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...

. He held several staff and operational appointments and was the Commanding Officer of the 140 Squadron. He continues to serve his

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

as a F-16 fighter pilot. On 14 September 2017, Huang was the parade commander for President

Halimah Yacob Halimah binte Yacob (born 23 August 1954) is a Singaporean politician and lawyer who held the office of the eighth president of Singapore from 2017 to 2023, making her the first woman to serve in this role. A former member of Singapore's long ...

's inauguration ceremony held at

the Istana The Istana (from the Malay word for "palace") is the official residence and office of the president of Singapore. The palace is open to the public during scheduled public holidays and is where the president receives and entertains state guests ...

. On 9 August 2018, Huang was the parade commander for Singapore's 53rd National Day Parade, in conjunction with the

's 50th anniversary.

Political career

Huang was fielded for the 2020 general election as one of five candidates representing the

(PAP) in

. On 11 July 2020, Huang was declared an elected Member of the 14th Parliament. On 13 May 2024, Huang was appointed as senior parliamentary secretary in the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

and

Controversy

Public criticism arose over Huang’s change of surname prior to the 2020 Singapore General Election. Huang's birth name was Ingkiriwang Shawn Wei Zhong. His great-grandfather, an

Indonesian Chinese Chinese Indonesians (), or simply ''Orang Tionghoa'' or ''Tionghoa'', are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese Indonesians are the fourth largest community of Overseas Chinese in th ...

, had changed his original Chinese surname " Huang" to the Indonesian-sounding "Ingkiriwang". In 1989, Huang had a deed poll to change his Indonesian Chinese surname to the original "Huang". However, due to administrative confusion, Huang was still known as "Ingkiriwang" until as late as 2018 when he was the parade commander for Singapore's 53rd National Day Parade. Another criticism arose over Huang’s poor temperament during the 2018 National Day Parade rehearsal. Reports made on Huang who allegedly threw lunch boxes at another military volunteer after he failed to receive his lunch box. Huang subsequently explained that he returned the lunch boxes politely with two other Warrant Officers as his witness. Huang came under public scrutiny during campaigning for the

2025 Singaporean general election General elections were held in Singapore on 3 May 2025 to elect all Member of parliament, members of the Parliament of Singapore across Constituencies of Singapore, 33 constituencies. It was the 19th general election in Singapore's history sinc ...

, where grassroots volunteers from

, a ward overseen by him, attempted to disrupt

Progress Singapore Party The Progress Singapore Party (abbreviation: PSP) is a political party in Singapore. It was one of the three political parties represented in 14th Parliament, alongside the governing People's Action Party (PAP) and the other opposition Workers' ...

candidates from conducting walkabouts following a leak of

WhatsApp WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make vo ...

messages from a group named "TJ PAP" being spread online on 30 April. Huang declined to comment and restricted comments on his social media platforms; the group was later disbanded.

Awards

In 2019, Huang was awarded the Public Service Medal.

Personal life

Huang is married with two children.

References

External links

Shawn Huang Wei Zhong
on

Parliament of Singapore The Parliament of Singapore is the unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Singapore, Republic of Singapore, which governs the country alongside the President of Singapore. Largely based upon the Westminster system, the Parliament is made ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huang, Shawn Living people 1982 births Singaporean people of Teochew descent United States Air Force Academy alumni People's Action Party politicians Members of the Parliament of Singapore Republic of Singapore Air Force personnel