A Taiwanese exchange student in Iceland yesterday reported that the nationality on her residency permit had been changed to “stateless” after she appealed against being classified as “Chinese.”
“Even though I’m only on a half-year exchange, having ‘Chinese’ written on my ID card made me uncomfortable, because I identify with Taiwan as my country of citizenship,” a female student studying at the Reykjavik University, identified only by her surname Lee (李), wrote on “台灣人在歐洲 Taiwanese in Europe” Facebook group.
The 23-year-old School of Law student said she carried her passport to avoid using the permit.
Photo provided by Lee
A series of e-mails to Iceland’s immigration agency explaining the difference between Taiwan (Republic of China) and China (People’s Republic of China) elicited no reply, she said, adding that she only started to receive responses after she brought up the issue when she applied in person for a work permit.
“The woman at the window looked at me apologetically and said she was surprised that there would be this kind of problem, but her supervisor had said that because Taiwan was not a recognized country, there was nothing he could do,” Lee said.
However, after three months of contacting different government bureaus and the Taipei Representative Office in Denmark, she finally received a new ID card, which listed her nationality as “stateless.”
“At that moment, I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or cry,” Lee said, adding that her place of birth on the card was changed from “Kaohsiung” to “Taiwan.”
“This probably barely counts as half of a success, because ‘stateless’ at least shows that they acknowledge my statement that Taiwan isn’t Chinese territory,” she said.
Lee said her experience should be a warning about the nation’s weakening international status, adding that she was tired of having to apologize for not being “Chinese.”
“Why do I always have to say sorry?” she said.
“I’m not sorry that I’m not Chinese and I would like to never see any Taiwanese apologizing for being Taiwanese ever again,” she said.
“While Taiwan may think of itself as a normally operating country, as soon as we go abroad, who pays attention to us? No one recognizes us, our overseas representatives don’t have the standing to speak up, and no one listens,” she said.
“People who have not gone abroad don’t have to face this and might not realize the importance of the nation’s official name, and the reality that we’re becoming more and more disadvantaged internationally. Dragging out the ‘maintenance of the status quo isn’t really a good thing,” Lee wrote.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that as the nation does not have a representative office in Iceland, all affairs there are handled by the Taipei Representative Office in Denmark, which has been instructed to offer assistance to the student.
Additional reporting by staff writer
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS