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.
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