A Taiwanese exchange student in Iceland yesterday reported that the nationality on her residency permit had been changed to “stateless” after she appealed against being classified as “Chinese.”
“Even though I’m only on a half-year exchange, having ‘Chinese’ written on my ID card made me uncomfortable, because I identify with Taiwan as my country of citizenship,” a female student studying at the Reykjavik University, identified only by her surname Lee (李), wrote on “台灣人在歐洲 Taiwanese in Europe” Facebook group.
The 23-year-old School of Law student said she carried her passport to avoid using the permit.
Photo provided by Lee
A series of e-mails to Iceland’s immigration agency explaining the difference between Taiwan (Republic of China) and China (People’s Republic of China) elicited no reply, she said, adding that she only started to receive responses after she brought up the issue when she applied in person for a work permit.
“The woman at the window looked at me apologetically and said she was surprised that there would be this kind of problem, but her supervisor had said that because Taiwan was not a recognized country, there was nothing he could do,” Lee said.
However, after three months of contacting different government bureaus and the Taipei Representative Office in Denmark, she finally received a new ID card, which listed her nationality as “stateless.”
“At that moment, I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or cry,” Lee said, adding that her place of birth on the card was changed from “Kaohsiung” to “Taiwan.”
“This probably barely counts as half of a success, because ‘stateless’ at least shows that they acknowledge my statement that Taiwan isn’t Chinese territory,” she said.
Lee said her experience should be a warning about the nation’s weakening international status, adding that she was tired of having to apologize for not being “Chinese.”
“Why do I always have to say sorry?” she said.
“I’m not sorry that I’m not Chinese and I would like to never see any Taiwanese apologizing for being Taiwanese ever again,” she said.
“While Taiwan may think of itself as a normally operating country, as soon as we go abroad, who pays attention to us? No one recognizes us, our overseas representatives don’t have the standing to speak up, and no one listens,” she said.
“People who have not gone abroad don’t have to face this and might not realize the importance of the nation’s official name, and the reality that we’re becoming more and more disadvantaged internationally. Dragging out the ‘maintenance of the status quo isn’t really a good thing,” Lee wrote.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that as the nation does not have a representative office in Iceland, all affairs there are handled by the Taipei Representative Office in Denmark, which has been instructed to offer assistance to the student.
Additional reporting by staff writer
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
CHINESE INCURSIONS, SORTIES: President William Lai thanked military officers for shouldering the responsibility of defending the survival and development of Taiwan President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that aggression would inevitably fail, pointing — on the day before a mass military parade in Beijing — to the lessons from World War II and key victories Taiwan claims against Chinese forces in 1958. Taiwan has over the past five years repeatedly complained about heightened Chinese military activity including war games around the nation as Beijing steps up pressure to enforce territorial claims that Taipei rejects. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, are to oversee a military parade in Beijing today to mark the
RSS