Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) threatened to sue Chinese-language Next Magazine yesterday following allegations that the government had received a response from the US proving she still had US citizenship.
Lee reiterated that she had lost her US citizenship after she returned to Taiwan to serve as a public official.
“The content [of the story] was completely false. It was a fabrication. It has seriously confused the public. As a result, I will file a lawsuit,” she told reporters.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Lee’s lawyer Chang Yuan-hsiao (張元宵) said Section 349(A)(4) of the US Immigration and Nationality Act would prove Lee’s claim because a US citizen loses his or her citizenship if he or she serves as a public official in another country or takes an oath of allegiance to another country in relation to a government post.
The latest edition of Next — which hit newsstands yesterday — claimed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had received confirmation from the US that Lee still held US citizenship.
In its March 12 edition, Next claimed Lee possessed dual citizenship, a claim she denied.
DENIAL
She said she obtained permanent residency in the US in 1985 and citizenship in 1991, but later gave up her citizenship.
Article 20 of the Nationality Law (國籍法), which took effect on June 20, 2001, states that foreign citizens are prohibited from holding government office.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus reported Lee’s case to the Taipei Prosecutors’ Office for investigation after the Next article in March.
Lee would have to return her salary as a Taipei City council from 1994 to 1998 and as a legislator since 1998 — estimated at NT$100 million (US$3.2 million) — if the allegation is true.
She would also lose her job as a legislator, forcing a by-election in Taipei City’s sixth district.
KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) said the caucus’ attitude toward the issue is clear, it would handle the matter according to the law.
KMT Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) urged the party to resolve the issue and nominate a candidate for the by-election as soon as possible.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said that the legislature was still waiting for the results of the judicial investigation into Lee’s nationality status.
Wang, a KMT member, vowed to handle the results according to the law and rebuffed media speculation that he would not act impartially.
KMT'S POSITION
KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) said Lee had told him that she had cancelled her US citizenship and he trusted her word.
Wu said the KMT would respect the judicial system’s decision and it did not have the authority to handle any problems concerning Lee’s citizenship.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied it had sought help from the US to verifying Lee’s status. Ministry Spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said it was never asked by any government agency to approach the US about the issue.
MOFA
“We did receive a request from a particular party last week. But since the party was not authorized to deal with this issue, we did not heed the request,” she said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators urged Wang to clear up the matter.
“We request Wang solve this problem as soon as possible. Stop trying to cover it up for the KMT,” DPP deputy whip Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) said.
Another DPP deputy whip, Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩), said the caucus had filed a request with Wang in March to investigate Lee’s nationality but Wang had ignored the request.
“President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised the public that he would strictly adhere to the law. I think it is time for him to prove it,” Chiu said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU,
MO YAN-CHIH AND JIMMY CHUANG
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater