Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Diane Lee’s (李慶安) attorney said the US’ latest explanation of its laws on loss of citizenship backs Lee’s claim that she legally lost her US citizenship when she took public office in Taiwan more than a decade ago.
Lee Yung-jan (李永然) was referring to a Jan. 16 letter from the American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) Washington office that stated loss of US citizenship occurs when a citizen “voluntarily commits a statutorily defined potentially expatriating act with the intention of relinquishing US citizenship.”
Lee Yung-jan said Diane Lee’s taking of an oath of allegiance to the Republic of China (ROC) when she took office as a Taipei City councilor in 1994 and her use of her ROC passport to enter and exit the US since then were concrete acts that proved her intent to give up her US citizenship.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
“We believe that the latest AIT letter marks a favorable development in the case,” he said.
Diane Lee’s case is on the agenda of the Central Election Commission’s meeting today. It must decide whether her election to public office prior to last year should be nullified. She was sworn in for a fourth legislative term on Feb. 1 last year.
The following month, however, it was discovered that she had never formally renounced her US citizenship, although she had held public office in Taiwan since 1994.
She resigned on Jan. 8 just as groups of civic organizations were preparing to besiege the legislature to protest its failure to act against her.
The Nationality Act (國籍法) requires public officials holding dual citizenship to surrender their foreign citizenship before assuming public office and to obtain a certificate as proof that they had complied with the act within one year of taking office.
The law also requires that those officials who retain foreign citizenship be removed from their posts.
Calls for Diane Lee to be formally relieved of her seat mounted after US authorities, in response to an inquiry from Taiwan, confirmed late last year that she “has previously been documented as a US citizen with a US passport and that no subsequent loss of US citizenship has been documented.”
But in a letter dated Nov. 22 to Taiwan’s representative office in Washington, AIT managing director Barbara Schrage wrote that US citizens serving in a foreign government “may have committed an expatriating act if they do so with the intent to relinquish their US nationality.”
Schrage wrote that while the US Department of State has not made any determination regarding loss of citizenship for any individual Taiwanese lawmaker, “it could do so based on evidence that he or she committed a potentially expatriating act with the intention of relinquishing US nationality.”
Central Election Commission Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天祐) said earlier this week that the commission had asked the US to clarify whether Taiwanese lawmakers or city councilors would automatically lose their status as US citizens once they take an oath of office in Taiwan, and whether they need to apply to relinquish their citizenship or have US authorities invalidate their US citizenship.
In a terse letter dated Jan. 16, Schrage replied that as stated in her previous letter, “loss of US citizenship occurs when a citizen voluntarily commits a statutorily defined potentially expatriating act with the intention of relinquishing US citizenship,” political sources said.
Democratic Progressive Party legislators have filed a complaint with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office accusing Lee of forgery and fraud.
They alleged that by holding dual citizenship while in public office, Lee defrauded state coffers of more than NT$100 million (US$2.97 million) in salary as a Taipei City councilor between 1994 and 1998 and as a legislator from 1999 to last month, and they demanded that she return the “illicit gains.”
Lee has been barred from leaving the country pending prosecutorial investigations.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
UNKNOWN TRAJECTORY: The storm could move in four possible directions, with the fourth option considered the most threatening to Taiwan, meteorologist Lin De-en said A soon-to-be-formed tropical storm east of the Philippines could begin affecting Taiwan on Wednesday next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The storm, to be named Fung-wong (鳳凰), is forecast to approach Taiwan on Tuesday next week and could begin affecting the weather in Taiwan on Wednesday, CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) said, adding that its impact might be amplified by the combined effect with the northeast monsoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the system’s center was 2,800km southeast of Oluanbi (鵝鑾鼻). It was moving northwest at 18kph. Meteorologist Lin De-en (林得恩) on Facebook yesterday wrote that the would-be storm is surrounded by
RSS