The legislature’s Procedure Committee decided yesterday to give each member a confidential letter containing the results of the US’ investigation into the nationality status of lawmakers and then allow its plenary session to deal with the probe’s results.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆), the committee convener, said the committee had arranged for the issue to clear the floor during Friday’s plenary session, which would be responsible for dealing with the probe’s results.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Dec. 8 that it had received a report from the US on the citizenship status of Taiwanese lawmakers on Dec. 5.
The legislature decided on May 23 to investigate the citizenship of all members in response to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus’ allegations that KMT Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) is a US citizen.
Lee has been beset by claims that she holds dual nationality ever since Chinese-language Next Magazine alleged in June that she holds a valid US passport. By law, Taiwanese with dual citizenship cannot serve as government officials. If the allegations are true, she would have to give up the seat she has held since 1998 and repay her lawmaker’s salary.
Lee says she obtained permanent US residency in 1985 and citizenship in 1991 but automatically lost that citizenship when she became a public official in Taiwan. That explanation, however, does not meet the US government’s requirements for relinquishing US citizenship.
DPP Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) told the Procedure Committee that as the majority party in the legislature, the KMT had not taken any “positive” steps to deal with the dual nationality issue, and it should apologize to voters over the matter.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS