Naturalized Players In International Competition...( Table Tennis )

These successes have been somewhat controversial in Singapore. In 2014, Singapore Table Tennis Association's president Lee Bee Wah quit over this issue;her successor, Ellen Lee, later favoured the application for citizenship of Zeng Jian, a China-born paddler.

The rate of naturalization accelerated after the ITTF's 2009 decision (one year after China won every possible Olympic medal in the sport) to reduce the number of entries per association in both the Olympics and the World Table Tennis Championships.

In 2019, the ITTF adopted new regulations which state that players who acquired a new nationality may not represent their new association before:

1 year after the date of registration, if the player is under the age of 15 when registered and has never represented another association 3 years after the date of registration, if the player is under the age of 15 when registered and has already represented another association 5 years

after the date of registration, if the player is under the age of 18 but at least 15 years of age when registered 7 years after the date of registration, if the player is under the age of 21 but at least 18 years of age when registered 9 years

after the date of registration, if the player is at least 21 years old when registered