Following a YouTuber’s warning that tens of thousands of Taiwanese have Chinese IDs, the government launched a nationwide probe and announced that it has revoked the Republic of China (Taiwan) citizenship of three Taiwanese who have Chinese IDs.
Taiwanese rapper Pa Chiung (八炯) and YouTuber Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源) in December last year released a documentary showing conversations with Chinese “united front” related agency members and warned that there were 100,000 Taiwanese holding Chinese IDs. In the video, a Taiwanese named Lin Jincheng (林金城), who is wanted for fraud in Taiwan and has become the head of the Taiwan Youth Entrepreneurship Park in China’s Fujian Province, said that he has been assisting Taiwanese in applying for Chinese IDs. He claimed that more than 200,000 people have obtained Chinese IDs without having to give up their Taiwanese IDs.
Under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例), the Nationality Act (國籍法), the Household Registration Act (戶籍法) and other cross-strait laws, Taiwanese are prohibited from having Chinese citizenship, a Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport. China also does not permit dual citizenship. Mainland Affairs Council records showed that over the past 10 years, only 679 Taiwanese have had their household registrations, ID cards and passports invalidated after obtaining a Chinese passport or household registration.
The documentary has triggered concerns in Taiwan. In addition to the so-called Taiwan compatriot permit (台胞證) — a Beijing-issued travel document allowing Taiwanese entry into China that is designed to negate the use of a Taiwanese passport — China has in the past few years encouraged Taiwanese to apply for residence permits (居住證), which allow them to live and work in China without giving up their Taiwanese citizenship.
More recently, Beijing has been pushing Taiwanese to apply for a new document being offered by China’s Fujian Province called “Taiwanese Residence Certificate (台灣居民定居證),” which includes preferential financial and living incentives. However, those certificates are temporary papers whose primary aim is to encourage Taiwanese to obtain Chinese household registrations and Chinese IDs.
These are obviously Chinese “united front” tactics to entice Taiwanese to reside in China and boost its propaganda that Taiwanese are Chinese nationals. China in 2018 boasted that more than 20,000 Taiwanese had applied for residence permits, and last year said that a growing number of Taiwanese had gained Chinese residencies and IDs, without giving figures.
Lin in the video said that Taiwanese with residence permits could gain easier access to financial loans and buy properties in China. That raises the danger of these applications being used as tools to commit cross-strait economic fraud and personal information surveillance, putting the safety of Taiwanese in China at risk.
Although the two influencers’ estimates of the number of Taiwanese possessing Chinese IDs might be an exaggeration, the government launched an investigation and has so far questioned more than 30 people suspected of holding Chinese IDs. Three have had their citizenships revoked after it was confirmed that they have Chinese IDs. The Ministry of the Interior also found five cases of borough wardens with Chinese nationalities and discovered that several public relations firms in Taiwan were involved in promoting Chinese ID applications.
Faced with China’s intensified “united front” efforts that threaten Taiwan’s sovereignty and security, President William Lai (賴清德) called on the public not to sacrifice long-term safety and democracy for short-term gains. The government needs to raise a greater awareness of Taiwanese identity and set up more mechanisms to regulate cross-strait migration.
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