Sun Xueling ( zh, s=孙雪玲, p=Sūn Xuělíng; born 1979) is a Singaporean politician who has been serving as Minister of State for Social and Family Development since 2020 and Minister of State for Home Affairs since 2022. She previously served as Minister of State for Education between 2020 and 2022. A member of the governing

People's Action Party The People's Action Party ( abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) a ...

(PAP), she has been the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

(MP) representing Punggol West SMC since 2020. Prior to entering politics, Sun had worked at the

Economic Development Board The Economic Development Board (EDB) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Government of Singapore that plans and executes strategies to sustain Singapore as a leading global hub for business and investment. ...

DBS Bank DBS Bank Limited, often known as DBS, is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at the Marina Bay Financial Centre in the Marina Bay district of Singapore. The bank was previously known as The De ...

, Temasek International,

Deutsche Bank AG Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York S ...

and Macquarie Securities. She made her political debut in the 2015 general election as part of a six-member PAP team contesting in Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC and won 72.89% of the vote. She served as Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs and Senior Parliamentary Secretary for National Development concurrently between 2018 and 2020. During the

2020 general election The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2020. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems maintains a comprehensive list of upcoming elections on its E-Guide Platform. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calend ...

, she contested as a solo PAP candidate in Punggol West SMC and won 60.98% of the vote. She was subsequently promoted to Minister of State in 2020.

Early life and education

Sun was brought up mostly by her grandmother, who was widowed at the age of 33 with six children as Sun's parents were both busy in their full-time jobs. She grew up in a flat in Clementi with her younger sister before moving to

Ang Mo Kio Ang Mo Kio is a planning area and residential town situated in the North-East of Singapore. Located approximately north of the Downtown Core district, Ang Mo Kio is the 3rd most populated planning area in the North-East Region and ranks 8t ...

. Having been encouraged by her grandmother to help the needy, she started doing volunteering work in 2001, while she was studying at the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in th ...

, from which she graduated with a

Bachelor of Social Science The academic undergraduate degree of Bachelor of Social Science (BSS, B.Soc.Sc., or B.Soc.Sci.) requires three to four years of study in the social sciences at an institution of higher education, primarily found in the Commonwealth of Nations. ...

s degree in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analy ...

. She subsequently went on to complete a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast ...

with merit degree in international political economy at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

Career

Sun started her career in the

in 2003 before she joined

as an Assistant Vice-President. She was Director of Investment Groups at

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...

and had spent eight years based in Hong Kong and China working for as a Director for

and as Senior Vice-President for Macquarie Securities. She was also the Chief Executive Officer of Business China from 1 November 2015 to 20 May 2018.

Political career

Sun was introduced by the

(PAP) as a candidate contesting in Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC on 1 August 2015 in the lead-up to the 2015 general election. Before her candidacy was announced, she had been very active in grassroots activities in

Buona Vista Buona Vista is a housing estate located in the subzones of one-north and Holland Drive in the residential township of Queenstown in Singapore. The housing estate is served by the Buona Vista MRT station which links it up with the MRT system. I ...

since 2001 and had been advocating women and mothers' rights. During the campaigning period for the 2015 general election, Sun was the target of xenophobic comments online because her name, which is in

hanyu pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

, misled people into thinking that she was a new Singaporean citizen originally from China. The PAP team contesting in Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC during the 2015 general election won with 72.89% of the vote against the

Singapore Democratic Alliance The Singapore Democratic Alliance ( abbreviation: SDA) is a political coalition between the National Solidarity Party (NSP) and Singapore Justice Party (SJP) in Singapore. History Prior to the founding in 2001, then-opposition Member of Pa ...

, and Sun thus became a

representing the Punggol West ward of Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC. On 1 May 2018, Sun was appointed Senior Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of National Development. In 2019, Sun appeared in the fourth episode of the Channel 8 television series ''A Conversation with the Minister 2019''. During the

, Sun contested as a solo PAP candidate in Punggol West SMC, which was previously part of Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC. She won with 60.98% of the vote against the Workers' Party's Tan Chen Chen, and continued serving as the Member of Parliament for Punggol West. On 27 July 2020, she was promoted to

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In ...

and appointed to the Ministry of Social and Family Development and

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 ...

. In 2021, Sun appeared with Grace Fu in a segment of the Channel 8 television series ''A Conversation with the Minister'' in the third and finale episode about health. On 13 June 2022, Sun was appointed Minister of State at the Ministry of Home Affairs and relinquished the Education portfolio.

Personal life

Sun is married to an information technology entrepreneur who was born in Beijing and subsequently became a Singapore citizen in 2009. They have two daughters together.

References

External links

Sun Xueling
on Parliament of Singapore * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sun, Xueling 1979 births Living people Members of the Parliament of Singapore People's Action Party politicians Singaporean people of Hokkien descent Singaporean politicians of Chinese descent CHIJ Saint Nicholas Girls' School alumni Singaporean women in politics