The legislature’s decision not to unseat China-born Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Li Zhenxiu (李貞秀) was “regrettable,” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, citing issues surrounding her eligibility.
“From the perspective of the executive branch, we very much regret the Legislative Yuan’s decision not to revoke Li’s lawmaker status,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a routine news briefing in Taipei.
Liang said that under Article 20 of the Nationality Act (國籍法), the power to revoke a lawmaker’s status rests with the Legislative Yuan. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) reaffirmed the decision after interparty negotiations on Wednesday.
Photo: CNA
After the meeting, attended by lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as well as the TPP and the KMT, who together hold a majority in the legislature, Han said that both the facts and legal issues in Li’s case still needed to be clarified.
He said that Li’s legislative status and powers should be respected until the “relevant facts are established” and a “final judicial ruling is made.” Li is not facing legal action for what the government described as illegally sitting in the legislature and has already taken the oath of office.
Liang said Li faces two problems, the first being whether she held dual household registration in China and Taiwan when she registered as a candidate. The issue stems from Article 21 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 a person who previously held household registration in China must have had Taiwanese household registration for 10 years before being allowed to run for public office.
Article 9-1 of the act also requires such naturalized Taiwanese citizens to submit proof of having given up household registration in China, but that requirement was not strictly enforced until authorities stepped up enforcement early last year.
Taiwanese authorities consider a person to have given up their household registration in China only from the date they submit proof of its renunciation to the National Immigration Agency (NIA), Liang said. Since Li had not submitted such proof to the NIA before March last year, authorities could only begin counting from that date, making her ineligible to run for office before 2035, Liang said.
The second problem was whether she had applied to renounce her PRC nationality before taking office, a requirement Liang linked to the Nationality Act’s restrictions on holding public office while retaining the nationality of another country, he said.
“The fact is that, according to the Ministry of the Interior’s determination, Li did not apply before taking office to renounce her PRC nationality,” Liang said, adding that both the law and the facts are clear in showing that Li is not legally qualified to hold office.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS