Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) said yesterday his loyalty to the country should not be called into question because he had relinquished his US green card immediately after being asked to serve as foreign minister.
Ou was referring to an article published in Next Magazine that challenged his loyalty because he applied and received a US green card during his stint as ambassador to Guatemala in 2005.
In an emergency press conference yesterday afternoon, Ou admitted that he had applied for a green card during his service as ambassador, but said that the green card was to be used after he retired from public service.
Ou said it was his wife who had suggested participating in the annual US green card lottery and it was pure luck that they won a spot.
“My children work and study in the US. My 90-year-old mother-in-law also lives in the US. The plan was that my wife and I would settle in the US after I retire. This way we could be closer to our children and take care of my mother-in-law,” Ou said.
The minister said, however, that he immediately went to the US embassy in Guatemala to relinquish his green card as soon as he was asked to serve as a minister.
“I inquired with the US ambassador on how to relinquish my green card and he suggested the quickest way was for me to fill out the form so that’s exactly what I did,” he said.
Ou said that as he had given up his US permanent residency, he plans to stay in Taiwan after his retirement, but said: “Just because people move out of the country, does not mean they love Taiwan any less.”
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday questioned Ou’s loyalty and asked him to resign.
“He was an ambassador whose salary was paid by Taiwanese taxpayers, yet he was getting ready to live in the US. I think he needs to apologize and step down,” DPP legislative caucus deputy whip Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) said at a press conference yesterday morning.
At a separate press conference yesterday, Executive Yuan Spokeswoman Vanessa Shih (史亞平) came to Ou’s defense, displaying copies of certificates of loss of US permanent resident status, the I-407 forms signed by Ou and his wife Lena Ou (劉之媛) on April 16.
“[Ou and his wife] surrendered the right to permanent US residency at the US embassy in Guatemala immediately after Ou decided to take up the position of minister of foreign affairs,” Shih said.
Shih said that there were no irregularities in the matter because Ou renounced his US green card before taking up his position as a minister.
Asked by reporters if any Cabinet members hold dual nationality, Shih said “no.”
Before assuming their roles, at the request of Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), Cabinet members all filled out a form declaring they did not hold citizenship in any another country, Shih said.
“According to the forms, none of the Cabinet members holds dual nationality,” Shih said.
The Cabinet, however, did not investigate whether any Cabinet members were green card holders.
Dual nationality is not permissible under the Civil Servants Work Act (公務人員服務法), but the law does not cover green card status or other permanent resident status.
“Although holding a US green card is not illegal, we believe Cabinet members have dealt with the matter as they are aware of the public’s expectations,” Shih said.
Ou is the latest government figure to become embroiled in a US green card controversy, following accusations during the presidential campaign from then DPP candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) still possessed a valid green card.
Ma had said his green card, which he obtained in the 1970s, was automatically invalidated when he applied for a US visa in 1985, but he never displayed the I-407 form or any other documentation as evidence.
It has also been reported that KMT Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) has never officially renounced her US citizenship since she started her career as a legislator.
Lee said that she obtained US citizenship in 1991.
She said that she had lost her “legal” status as a citizen of the US when she was sworn in as a Taipei City councilor 14 years ago.
Additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS