Luo Da-you (
"This is not a rash decision made in the heat of the moment. This is a personal decision that I have made as a musician whose profession is to freely compose music," Luo said, warning others not to follow suit.
Luo arrived at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday morning and spent more than an hour completing the procedure to give up his US citizenship. The application now awaits approval from the US Department of State.
Reading from a statement, Luo said that he was grateful that his US passport had allowed him to freely travel the world.
"However, when US representatives introduced a resolution requesting that Taiwan send marines to Iraq, I realized that while the US often stresses peaceful negotiations across the Taiwan Strait, the US government is the third party that stands in the way of truly peaceful negotiation," Luo said.
Two Republican representatives introduced a resolution to the US House last week asking President George W. Bush to request that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) deploy thousands of marines to Iraq.
However, Luo's act of protest comes after US Department of State spokesman Richard Boucher called the issue a "moot point" given that Taiwan has not offered, nor has the US asked for, a military contribution.
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (
"In life you often have to make choices, and I choose to give up my US passport," Luo said, adding that he would apply for a visa if he ever wanted to visit the US and that he would be composing a song about the mixed emotions he felt in deciding to relinquish his US citizenship.
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Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
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