Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安), who has been at the center of a citizenship scandal, has quit the party. Lee issued a statement announcing her immediate resignation last night.
“With regard to the [US] nationality issue, although Edward A. Betancourt, the US State Department official in charge of citizenship affairs, sent me a letter on Dec. 4 saying that [the loss] of my citizenship remained under review, I ... cannot bear to see the KMT criticized by the public because of the case, even though the US government has not reached a final decision on the case,” the statement said.
Lee’s office said she would also cancel a planned visit to the KMT’s Evaluation and Discipline Committee today.
In March, Lee became the focus of a controversy over lawmakers holding dual citizenship after Chinese-language Next Magazine reported that she had a US passport.
In May the Legislative Yuan launched an investigation into whether any lawmakers had dual citizenship, asking for the help of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).
The Nationality Act (國籍法) bars government officials from holding dual citizenship.
Lee’s statement came after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday continued to hound Lee with the latest in a string of developments.
The DPP caucus on Monday released a US government document obtained from a Web site showing what it said were details of Lee’s income tax refund from the US government for this year.
Lee said that she had paid property tax and not income tax, a claim that DPP legislators yesterday rebutted, saying the documents in their possession showed Lee paid “2007 individual income tax.”
“Diane Lee should stop telling lies,” DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) told a press conference, displaying the document that she said showed Lee had paid “2007 individual income tax."
“If Lee paid property tax, why did the US government give her an extra US$300 for having a son under the age of 17?” Chiu asked, adding she had never heard of a refund for paying property tax.
DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) said property tax in the US is a state tax, not a federal government tax. If Lee paid property tax to a state government, why did the federal government give her a tax rebate, he asked.
The DPP caucus on Monday released a US government document obtained from a Web site showing what it said were details of Lee’s income tax refund for this year.
Earlier yesterday, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) had kept a low profile yesterday when asked whether the Presidential Office and the KMT headquarters had asked Lee to withdraw from the party.
Wang was approached for comment after a story in yesterday’s Chinese-language United Daily News said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Wang and three other senior KMT officials reached a consensus during a meeting on Monday that the KMT should decide how to deal with Lee soon.
“I can’t tell you [the focus of the meeting],” Wang said.
The story quoted an unidentified source as saying that the KMT’s Evaluation and Discipline Committee might suspend Lee’s party rights after inviting her to explain the nationality controversy to the committee today.
The source was also quoted as saying that the party headquarters was also trying to persuade Lee to withdraw from the party in a bid to prevent the controversy from harming the KMT.
Meanwhile, KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) urged Lee to resign, saying that the legislative job was “boring anyway” and that Lee could do better in other fields.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique