The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday defended its decision to administer a survey among government workers, teachers and military personnel asking if they have Chinese ID cards, passports or residency cards, saying it is necessary to counter China’s “united front” work.
The survey requires government workers to sign an affidavit saying that they have never had a registered household in China, Chinese passport, ID card, permit for Taiwan residents or permanent resident ID card.
The survey has sparked complaints among lower-ranking government workers.
Photo: CNA
“The government must tackle Beijing’s increasingly aggressive campaign to destroy the status quo of the Taiwan Strait and disregard cross-strait agreements. As it is impossible for the Chinese government to voluntarily provide information of Taiwanese applying for Chinese ID cards or passports, we need to ask government workers if they have contravened the law,” the MAC wrote on Facebook.
Government workers, teachers and military personnel can sign an affidavit to “demonstrate their loyalty” to the country, the MAC said.
“After a careful evaluation, we determine that the survey is a proper course of action, as it imposes the lowest administrative costs on organizations and schools, and causes least disruption of government workers’ lives,” the council said.
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) stipulates that civil servants would lose their government jobs once they obtain Chinese citizenship, it said.
The government must address Beijing’s attempts to integrate Taiwan into its social and economic systems, the council said, adding that some civil servants have been found to have Chinese ID cards.
The permanent resident ID cards and resident permits that Beijing issues to Taiwanese look almost the same as Chinese ID cards, which is Beijing’s way to say that Taiwanese are Chinese citizens, the council said.
“It is also part of China’s evil united front work that attempts to show Taiwan as its internal affair, negate the sovereignty of the Republic of China, Taiwan, and create an illusion that it has authority over the nation,” the council said, adding that government workers, teachers and military personnel must not disobey the government’s cross-strait policy and not take part in Beijing’s “united front” work.
Separately, the council on Monday night in a statement said that military-age men who have Chinese ID cards remain to be obliged to serve mandatory military service.
The cross-strait act stipulates that Taiwanese who have household registration in China or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their status and rights.
Their household registrations in Taiwan would be annulled, the act stipulates.
However, the act also says that they are not exempt from fulfilling responsibilities and obligations of Taiwanese, the MAC said.
The purpose of such regulation is to prevent military-age men from avoiding mandatory military service by switching to Chinese nationality, the MAC said.
The Nationality Act (國籍法) also bans military-age men who have not served mandatory military service from renouncing their nationality, it said.
About 100 military-age men who might have Chinese ID cards or household registrations in China are obliged to serve mandatory military service in Taiwan, Ministry of the Interior data show.
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