Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday that the results of the US’ investigation into the nationality status of legislators showed that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) is a US citizen and that she has not lost her US citizenship as she claims.
“The result shows that, according to US State Department records, Lee holds a US passport. She is a US citizen and there is no record showing Lee has lost her US nationality,” DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) told the Judiciary, Organic Laws and Statutes Committee meeting. “Lee should immediately face criminal investigation.”
The Procedure Committee decided last Thursday to give each member a confidential letter containing the results of the US’ investigation into the nationality status of lawmakers and to allow its plenary session to deal with the probe’s results.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Chai displayed the US document at the question-and-answer session, which drew protests from his KMT collegues.
KMT Legislator Chu Fong-chi (朱鳳芝) warned Chai not to display a document listed as confidential, but Chai told her to “shut up.”
The incident triggered a quarrel between DPP and KMT legislators.
“It is too much that such information be made confidential. This should be available to the public,” DPP caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) said.
Lai also told a press conference that Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who ordered the KMT caucus mark the document as confidential, had no moral courage.
“A legislator who has dual nationality is violating the Nationality Act [國籍法] and such information does not come under constitutional protection,” Lai said. “Wang’s decision trampled on the legislature.”
Lai said Diane Lee and KMT Legislator Mark Li (李明星), who is believed to have taken up his seat before giving up his US citizenship, should be suspended immediately and referred to prosecutors for investigation.
The legislature decided on May 23 to investigate the citizenship of all members in response to DPP caucus allegations that Lee was a US citizen.
The Nationality Act stipulates that elected public officials must give up their foreign citizenship within a year of taking the oath of office and obtain official documentation to prove their foreign citizenship has been renounced.
If the allegations prove to be true, Lee would have to give up the seat she has held since 1998 and repay the salary she has earned since then.
Under the Criminal Code she may have also have committed forgery and fraud.
Lee admitted yesterday that she was on the US list, but insisted that the results were not final.
Lee restated her argument that she lost her citizenship when she took an oath to become a public official in Taiwan.
“[US law stipulates that] a US citizen loses his or her citizenship when he or she intends to give up US citizenship and voluntarily takes actions as stipulated in US law to renounce his or her citizenship,” Lee said. “The real situation is that, as shown by the document I received on Dec. 4 from the US State Department’s highest-ranking official in charge of citizenship affairs [Edward Betancourt], the document proving the nullification of my citizenship remains under review. This is the truth.”
Lee urged the public to be patient and wait for the results of the review.
Meanwhile, Li said he had received a document from the US in October proving that he was no longer a US citizen.
Li told reporters that he had lost his citizenship when he took the oath to become a lawmaker on Feb. 1.
“I also gave related documents to them [the American Institute in Taiwan] when they interviewed me in April and then they issued a document to me in October saying that I had completed the procedure [of renouncing my citizenship],” Li said.
Wang, who is scheduled to preside over tomorrow’s plenary session, was unavailable for comment.
KMT Spokesman Lee Chien-jung (李建榮) downplayed the controversy, saying that his party would respect the final decision of the legislature.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been handling the matter,” Lee Chien-jung said. “We do not have any information from the US government, because the document has been handed over to the legislature.”
He said that things would be clearer once the legislature makes its position known.
He said the party would respect the decision of the legislature regarding whether Diane Lee should have forfeited her foreign citizenship when she was first elected.
When asked whether the party would ask her to offer a clear account of when Washington confirmed her US citizenship, the KMT spokesman said it was a hypothetical question and he could not answer it.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING AND JENNY W. HSU
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
RSS