The almost year-long melodrama of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Diane Lee’s (李慶安) suspected dual citizenship reached the end of Act One when she “suspended” her legislative authority on Dec. 25 following a letter by the US Department of State that showed there was no documented record of her giving up her US citizenship.
Lee now faces charges of tax evasion and violation of the Nationality Act (國籍法), which bars government officials from holding dual citizenship.
If she fails to produce evidence to prove her innocence by the end of this month, Lee could be recalled as a legislator or asked to return the salary she received during her past 14 years as an elected official.
Lee argues that she obtained permanent residency in the US in 1985 and citizenship in 1991, but automatically lost her US citizenship when she became a public official in Taiwan.
In March last year, she became the focus of a controversy over lawmakers holding dual citizenship after the Chinese-language Next Magazine reported that she had a US passport.
Lee continues to deny she has US citizenship and says the Department of State is still reviewing a document proving the nullification of her US citizenship.
Nevertheless, she chose to “suspend” her legislative authority and salary until the review is completed. She later announced she would also stop attending KMT caucus meetings and gave up her KMT membership until the matter is clarified.
The controversy spiraled into a possible criminal offense when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus last Monday released a document from the US government obtained from a Web site showing details of Lee’s income tax refund from the US government for this year.
With the controversy threatening to get out of hand, the KMT’s Evaluation and Discipline Committee stepped in after a meeting chaired by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) attended by four senior party members reached a consensus that the party must waste no time in tackling the matter. One day before the committee was to meet, however, Lee announced her immediate resignation from the party, saying she could not bear to see her party criticized by the public because of the case, while reiterating that the US government had yet to provide a final response.
Rather than meting out punishment on the four-term legislator, the Evaluation and Discipline Committee accepted Lee’s withdrawal and revoked her KMT membership.
Chao Yung-mao (趙永茂), a political science professor at National Taiwan University, said the KMT’s procrastination had significantly sullied the party’s image.
The KMT maintains it reacted with appropriate speed.
“A political party’s image is not a multiple choice question, but rather a true or false one,” he said. “Political responsibility should always precede legal accountability, even when … illegal acts are not committed.”
While the KMT did not take action until the Presidential Office realized the severity of the matter, Chao said, the party’s inaction only showed that it was out of touch with the public and lacked political acumen.
Comparing local politicians with those of countries such as Japan, Chao said it seemed Taiwanese politicians took their political credibility less seriously.
While it was common practice for Japanese politicians who made a blunder or were involved in a scandal to resign, it was usually not the case here, he said.
Lee might not have committed a crime, but she has put her credibility on the line, Chao said.
Prior to granting Lee’s request to quit the party, Chao said the KMT should have done more damage control by suspending her right as a party member during the investigation.
As a party controlling both the government and legislature, the KMT should have adopted higher standards and meted out harsh punishment to set an example, he said.
Frank Liu (劉正山), a professor at National Sun Yat-sen University’s Institute of Political Science, described the controversy as “a tempest in a tea pot” that was unlikely to spread, though it could have an impact in the year-end mayoral and county commissioner elections.
“For those who already have a bad impression of the KMT, the incident simply adds one more disgusting thing to the long list of its hideous conduct,” he said. “For those who know little about the KMT, the incident does not make them more interested in Lee or the party.”
Although the KMT elite believe the matter will have a limited impact on the year-end elections, the KMT must not forget that the electorate is also watching, he said.
“It certainly has an erosive effect,” he said. “So it is dangerous to say it has little effect.”
While saying it was difficult to judge whether the KMT had reacted too slowly, Liu said he was certain the party’s disciplinary committee and Lee had simply put up a show to minimize the damage.
While such a scheme was expected, Liu said it consumed Lee and the KMT because most KMT supporters would have preferred to see the party take more decisive action sooner.
Allen Houng (洪裕宏), an executive member of the Taipei Society, said the scandal served as a reminder of Ma’s dubious US green card status, a hot topic during the presidential campaign.
“The KMT believes that its lackadaisical and obscure response would help protect Lee and the party, but the repercussions are serious and are likely to hit Ma,” he said.
Houng said the KMT disciplinary committee’s decision was not surprising because it was difficult to hand down punishments, with Lee probably not the only KMT member to have dual citizenship. She just happened to be exposed, Hung said, adding that he suspected Lee and the KMT had struck a deal “to save face.”
Houng lamented the media’s unfair treatment of the KMT and the DPP, saying it would have launched a relentless pursuit had Lee been a DPP member.
Although the controversy would likely taper off over time, Houng said the way the party handled the matter added fuel to the fire.
“While it may seem that the fire has been put out, it will burn again and undermine the KMT,” he said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
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
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