The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday that Taiwan's representative to Brazil Chou Shu-yeh (周叔夜), who has permanent residency in the South American country, tendered his resignation a few days ago.
“Three of the MOFA’s diplomatic representatives have permanent residency in foreign countries. They are the representatives to Japan, Brazil and Bahrain,” ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said at a regular press briefing.
A report in the Chinese-language United Daily News said that an investigation by the Central Personnel Administration found that about 30 of the approximately 1,000 diplomatic officials posted overseas have permanent foreign residency status.
However, that number includes not only ministry personnel, but also public servants posted overseas by other government agencies, Yeh said.
She said the ministry has approximately 650 employees assigned overseas, and none of them hold dual citizenship. Only one political appointee, representative to Switzerland George Liu (劉寬平), has US citizenship, she said.
The report also stated that the Central Personnel Administration will keep a record of public officials who have permanent residency in foreign countries, but would not ask them to renounce their status.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has come under fire from the opposition over the foreign residency issue, with some legislators questioning the loyalty of officials who hold foreign residency status.
The issue came under the spotlight after Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) apologized for obtaining a US green card in 2005 when he was serving as the nation’s ambassador to Guatemala. He said he had officially given up his green card one month before assuming his current position on May 20.
Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers have, however, come to the defense of the former representative to Japan, Koh Se-kai (�?�), arguing that Koh had no choice but to apply for permanent residency in Japan because he was blacklisted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government for more than 30 years and stripped of his passport because of his pro-independence remarks.
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
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Japanese Councilor Hei Seki (石平) on Wednesday said that he plans to visit Taiwan, saying that would “prove that Taiwan is an independent country and does not belong to China.” Seki, a member of the Japan Innovation Party, was born in Chengdu in China’s Sichuan Province and became a naturalized Japanese in 2007. He was elected to the House of Concilors last year. His views on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — espoused in a series of books on politics and history — prompted Beijing to sanction him, including barring Seki from traveling to China. Seki wrote on X that he intends
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