Lawmakers made a resolution yesterday that public officials holding dual citizenship should be removed from their positions -- an agreement reached after heated debate, triggered by the controversy surrounding the nationality of Hsiao Bi-khim (
Hsiao, a US citizen whose father is Taiwanese and whose mother is American, has been working closely with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as his adviser and translator. Opposition lawmakers have attacked the government regarding her employment, claiming that putting a foreigner in charge of national affairs is endangering the country's security.
When Director of the Cabinet's Central Personnel Administration Chu Wu-hsien (
"Then, the nature of Hsiao's work is in breach of the regulation that advisers should not be responsible for work that is highly confidential," Ying said.
KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun (
Chu, appearing baffled, said that he had dealt with the employment of Hsiao in accordance with official documents filed by the personnel office of the Presidential Office, adding that he did not know all the details.
Unsatisfied with Chu's answers, attending lawmakers lashed out at Chu's negligence.
Facing the displeasure of the lawmakers, Chu replied by saying that he would be more careful in the future with similar cases.
After rounds of hot arguments between DPP and opposition lawmakers, they passed a resolution that all executive organizations should thoroughly investigate the background of their employees, and that those who retain dual citizenship should be removed from their posts.
Hsiao is currently overseas, and so could not be reached. But according to a press release she issued last Wednesday, she said she would abandon her US citizenship before she gets her ROC identification card, adding that she could not yet get her ROC identification card because, according to Taiwan's legal regulations, she had to stay in Taiwan continuously for one year to qualify to apply for a Taiwanese ID card.
Due to her work, Hsiao said, she had never stayed in Taiwan for more than a year, therefore, she could not file the application.
Lawmakers yesterday also questioned the validity of a regulation made by the Examination Yuan, which states that public officials with dual citizenship are required to forsake their citizenship of the other country within one year.
The regulation, merely a resolution made by members of the Examination Yuan, is not legally binding.
Moreover, it is in violation of Article 20 of the Nationality Law (
Article 20 of the Nationality law states that ROC citizens cannot become public officials if they become citizens of another country and that if they already hold a public post, they are to be removed from the position. Article 28 of the Civil Servants Employment Law says that those who are not ROC citizens are not allowed to serve as a ROC public servants.
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
HIGH-TECH DEAL: Chipmakers that expand in the US would be able to import up to 2.5 times their new capacity with no extra tariffs during an approved construction period Taiwan aims to build a “democratic” high-tech supply chain with the US and form a strategic artificial intelligence (AI) partnership under the new tariffs deal it sealed with Washington last week, Taipei’s top negotiator in the talks said yesterday. US President Donald Trump has pushed Taiwan, a major producer of semiconductors which runs a large trade surplus with the US, to invest more in the US, specifically in chips that power AI. Under the terms of the long-negotiated deal, chipmakers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) that expand US production would incur a lower tariff on semiconductors or related manufacturing
RSS