More than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China did not provide proof that they renounced their Chinese citizenship as the law stipulates, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) told lawmakers yesterday.
NIA officials made the remarks a day after the agency said in a news release that a minority of Chinese-born naturalized citizens had received warnings over their failure to submit documentation proving that they do not have dual citizenship.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) during a legislative session asked whether government actions had been motivated by the deportation of three Chinese-born influencers over the past few weeks who made public statements supporting China using force to invade Taiwan.
Photo: Liao Cheng-hui, Taipei Times
He also asked officials the number of Chinese immigrants holding citizenship in Taiwan who might be in breach of the ban on dual citizenship stipulated by the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
The NIA has no political motive for the notices, as officials have been serving them to naturalized citizens not in compliance with the law since before the controversy regarding the three influencers, NIA Deputy Director-General Chen Chen-cheng (陳建成) said.
In 2004, Taiwan promulgated amendments to the law that require naturalized citizens born in China to legally renounce their Chinese citizenship, Chen said.
The number of Chinese immigrants not in compliance with the amendments is a minority compared with the total number of 140,000, he said, adding that the NIA revoked the citizenship of 676 Chinese immigrants.
Most immigrants in breach of that law failed to provide documentation due to paperwork issues or health problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
The amendments apply to people who obtained citizenship via marriage before 2004, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said.
The MAC has received complaints from Chinese spouses, including reasonable ones that officials are helping to resolve, he said.
Separately, DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said party lawmakers support government actions insofar as they follow the law.
Practical difficulties in the law’s implementation should be negotiated, she said.
DPP Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) cited the act as saying that Chinese nationals who obtained Taiwanese citizenship should have renounced their citizenship and household registration in China within six months of the law’s promulgation.
The authorities should protect the lawful rights of immigrants who had lost their documents or could not realistically be expected to return to China to obtain their papers, she said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) said enforcing immigration offenses that might have been committed 20 years ago past their statute of limitations is a violation of human rights.
The government should work on dealing with a looming global economic depression, not finding domestic enemies, he added.
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