Singaporean? Foreign talent? Or Chinese (betrayer)?

So Feng Tianwei won the World Team Table Tennis Championships. Reactions in Singapore range from pride (“Well done, Team Singapore!”) to indifference (“What's the big deal? Chinese vs Chinese only.”) to disgust (calling Feng a betrayer of China or “Our gahmen is favouring foreign talents over locals!”)

I say well done to Feng and then team, because it is indeed no mean feat to win the championships, and to end China's monopoly over the gold. But that's as far as I will go. It is a great personal achievement for the players and the players alone. Not for our country.

I agree that at the end of the day, it was only a showdown between two China-Chinese teams. This reaction is not a result of xenophobia. In spite of official claims of Feng's Singaporean-ness, many people don't buy it because the facts speak for themselves:

1. Feng grew up in China and trained in China. She tried for the national B squad, and would have played for China if not for a long illness.
2. Feng was then talent-spotted by Singpaore in 2005 and only started training in Singapore in April 2007.
3. She became a Singapore citizen in Jan 2008 - within a grand total of 9 months. This despite the eligibility criteria to become a citizen as stated on ICA's website: "A person who is at least 21 years of age and has been a Singapore Permanent Resident (SPR) for at least 2 to 6 years prior to the date of application."

It is obvious that Singapore imported her, already minted for international competitions, for the sole purpose of winning medals FOR Singapore, to make a name for our little island in the international sporting arena. Therefore it simply makes sick to think how shameless, desperate and ruthless our government is. Rest assured that Feng and the rest of the team are not the only ones, but there are many more under Singapore's Foreign Sports Talent Scheme.

This Scheme betrays our government's attitude: We must be number one in every single thing: air-travel and transport, education, governance and ministers' salaries, holding conventions, tourism, shopping, technology etc. Doesn't the government know there is a limit? Aren't they being paranoid just because we are geographically small? And they stop at nothing - including giving up self-respect - to get that number one in each area.

I'm not against getting foreign talents, nor am I biased against Chinese nationals. But there's a world of difference between hiring a top economic/technological/etc expert to work here, and pinching talents developed by other countries and passing them off as OUR OWN achievement. Feng's talents were developed by and in China; her formative years and foundation in table tennis were not made here. We merely provided some additional training for just 3 years. Just because we can't win our own medals. For goodness' sake, the government should learn to just accept the facts.