Some critics said that the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) has relied too much on it, as the team consisted of three China-born players, Feng Tianwei, Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu.
[6] A day earlier, STTA president Lee Bee Wah had said: "It doesn't mean that we should look at them [foreign-born table tennis players] differently because they're not born and brought up in Singapore.
"[7] In addition, during his Mandarin National Day Rally speech on 17 August, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said: In the Olympics contingent, there are 25 members, half of whom are new Singaporeans.
[8]In a 2009 Parliament session, Nominated Member of Parliament Joscelin Yeo questioned if a minimum ratio of local athletes versus athletes who graduate under the FST Scheme is needed, to ensure Singapore-born hopefuls have the opportunity to realise their full potential.
Balakrishnan maintained that there was no need to set a ratio on the number of FSTs in each sport as the Singapore Youth Sports Development Committee is working to grow the pool of young local athletes by spotting young talent early and nurturing them, and giving them greater exposure to competition.
Balakrishnan revealed that FSTs currently make up 4.6 per cent of the total number of athletes among the development and national squads of the seven key sports in the country.
[9] Singapore Athletic Association's (SAA) President, Loh Lin Kok, brought in shot put specialists Du Xianhui, Zhang Guirong and Dong Enxin from China under the scheme in 1998.
Du returned to China after a dispute over an administrative process for her drug testing in 2007 and retired from sports.
[11] Luan and E Xiaoxu were involved in court cases with the SAA over unfair dismissal while Dong had disappointed in performance.
From 2007, the FAS accepted changes to the scheme which requires new foreign sports talents to play in the S.League for a minimum of two seasons after being granted Singapore citizenship.
However, due to the stringent selection process and early success of the youth development programme, to date, only nine foreign-born players have been granted Singapore citizenship.