Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) on Tuesday called the Taiwan Civil Government’s move to issue identification documents, licenses and registration plates in Taichung “a violation of law and order,” warning the public that such documents from the group “have no legal validity.”
Lin made the comments in response to questions by Taichung city councilors about the group’s recent establishment of a so-called “Taichung Prefecture Government.”
The Taiwan Civil Government is a political group that says the Republic of China (ROC) government in Taipei is not legitimate. It instead claims that the Japanese emperor holds sovereignty over Taiwan and that the US should create a civil government to administer the nation.
The group has recently come under media scrutiny after one of its members, a self-styled citizen reporter named Hung Su-chu (洪素珠), drew public condemnation for insulting a elderly waishengren (外省人).
The term waishengren is used to refer to people who fled to Taiwan with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime in 1949.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taichung City Councilor Chang Yao-chung (張耀中) said that the group, which claims to have 50,000 members, recently established a “prefectural government” in Taichung, with offices in the city’s Central (中區) and Taiping (太平) districts.
“How would the city government respond if the ‘Taichung prefectural governor’ of the Taiwan Civil Government sent a formal document addressed to Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung?” Chang asked.
He said the Taiwan Civil Government has said that it would do away with all license taxes and provide welfare benefits to elderly citizens of US$800 to US$1,200 per month, as well as offer free public housing, free public education until college, free national health insurance and zero-interest on tuition loans, if it were to assume power.
The Taiwan Civil Government has been charging fees for its identification cards, passports and vehicle registration plates, Chang added.
“Do those ambiguous and misleading statements not violate the law?” he said.
DPP Taichung City Councilor Chiang Chao-kuo (江肇國) asked: “What if members of the public want a refund on their Taiwan Civil Government identification cards? Would the city government treat it as a consumer dispute, an internal dispute in a civic group, or an internal dispute in an unregistered political party?”
DPP Taichung City Councilor Ho Ming-cheng (何敏誠) said the city government should clarify the situation and convince the group to register itself with the appropriate authority, adding: “Otherwise, faith in the city government’s authority and credibility would be eroded.”
In response, Lin said that while the people’s right to assembly and free speech are constitutionally guaranteed, there is a legal obligation for political parties and civic groups to be registered by the Ministry of the Interior, and that distributing invalid identification documents and vehicle registration plates is, in his view, against the law.
The group would be held to account for any financial losses that users of their invalid papers might have incurred, and the city government would deal with the situation according to the law, Lin said, adding that he considers the case a national issue that requires action from the central government.
In response to media questions about the Taiwan Civil Government’s claim that documents issued by the group allow holders to enter the US, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Kin Moy on Tuesday said that the AIT and US Customs and Border Protection only recognize identification papers issued by “authorized government agencies” when granting visitors entry to the US.
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