Legislators will review tomorrow a proposed amendment to the Nationality Act (國籍法) that would bar Taiwanese nationals who hold permanent residency in another country from assuming public office in Taiwan.
The amendment would mean a further tightening of the qualifications for public office. Under the current law, nationals who concurrently hold citizenship from another country are barred from public office.
Two separate bills on this matter have been introduced by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) and by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) and Pan Meng-an (潘孟安).
Lin and Pan have also proposed shortening the period during which public office holders must prove renunciation of their foreign citizenship or permanent residency, from within one year of their inauguration down to six months.
Pan said becoming a citizen of another country as well as holding permanent residency in a foreign country impinges on one’s allegiance to his or her own nation and therefore should be ruled as grounds for exclusion from public office.
Wu said that barring those holding permanent residency from assuming public office would help ease public doubts about the allegiance issue.
During the run-up to the presidential election last year, the DPP challenged the allegiance of KMT candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), pointing to the fact that Ma had obtained a US green card while studying in the US in the 1970s. The DPP said that Ma’s green card may have been valid up to that point because he had never officially renounced his US permanent residency.
Ma said he had been using a US visa rather than a green card to enter the US since the mid-1980s, a move he said was the equivalent of having renounced his permanent resident status.
After Ma’s election and inauguration as president, the DPP targeted a number of senior officials in his administration who either had held US green cards, reportedly still held US green cards or had applied for US green cards.
On the list was Minister of Foreign affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊), who obtained US permanent resident status in 2005 when he was ambassador to Guatemala and who renounced the status one month before assuming his ministerial position.
Also mentioned was Representative to the US Jason Yuan (袁健生), who applied for US permanent residence in 2004, but officially filed for a termination of the application process before assuming his post.
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