A sailor whose mother reportedly applied for a Chinese ID card on his behalf can keep his Taiwanese citizenship, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday.
The man, surnamed Yang (楊), serves in the navy’s 168th Fleet and holds a Chinese ID card, which was obtained 10 years ago by his Chinese mother.
The council met with the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday to discuss the situation.
Photo: Taipei Times
Yang’s mother applied for the card when he was a child, even though he explicitly expressed unwillingness to get one, the MAC said.
On Wednesday, he applied to Chinese authorities to annul his household registration in China, it said.
The government would not require Yang to travel to China to carry out the annulment procedure, as he is an active-duty soldier who is restricted from visiting China as a matter of national security, it said.
Given that Yang sought assistance from the government and took action to relinquish his Chinese citizenship, the agencies decided to retain his Taiwanese citizenship, the MAC said.
The decision was made in accordance with Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), which stipulates that in special cases, people can be exempt from revocation of Taiwanese citizenship, it added.
The act stipulates that Taiwanese with a household registration in China or a Chinese passport would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked and lose the rights to vote, recall, initiative and referendum, as well as other rights derived from Taiwanese citizenship, including serving in the military or public service, the council said, adding that the government would strictly impose the punishment on those who contravene the act.
To prevent Yang from stress due to intense public attention, the Ministry of National Defense and his supervisors would provide counseling and assistance, the MAC said.
His role and responsibilities would be properly rearranged to help develop his military career after the ministry completes its investigation, the council added.
MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said there are likely to be more cases of parents who applied for Chinese IDs on behalf of their children.
Many Taiwanese businesspeople in China possess Chinese IDs, as they had children and registered their residence there before moving back to Taiwan, he said.
Investigations would continue, with civil service agencies mobilized to aid the effort, Liang said.
From 2014 to last year, 676 people were stripped of their Taiwanese citizenship for possessing Chinese IDs, he said.
Taiwanese and Chinese citizenships have been mutually exclusive for the past 30 years, but the rule has been bent in China’s Fujian Province, where authorities do not require people to submit Taiwanese documents when applying for a Chinese ID, Liang said.
Taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲) and Su Shih-en (蘇士恩) had their Taiwanese citizenship revoked due to concurrent possession of Chinese citizenship, he said, calling on Beijing not to compromise the rules in its efforts to promote integrated cross-strait development.
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