A Taiwanese fugitive in China, who allegedly has become a member of a political organization there, has lost his citizenship, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Wednesday.
Lien Shang-ming’s (連上銘) Taiwanese citizenship was revoked after it was found that he had obtained a household registration in China, the council said in statement.
Taiwanese are prohibited from registering households in China, holding a Chinese passport or serving in China’s political, military or administrative organizations, the MAC said, citing the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Lien has been a fugitive since he was charged with offenses related to vote-buying in Taiwan and is being investigated by authorities for allegedly becoming a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the MAC said.
A Jan. 25 report published on a media Web site in Beijing said that Lien is a member of the CPPCC’s Hunan Province chapter and director of a service center for Taiwanese investors in Yueyang City.
The council said that Lien has been on a wanted list in Taiwan since 2020, when the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office charged him for illegally trying to sway voters in the presidential election that year.
He was accused of using Chinese funds to woo support for then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) by hosting fundraisers among Taiwanese expatriates in China and subsidizing airfares for them to return to Taiwan, in collaboration with six other Taiwanese there.
One of the six, Lin Huai (林懷), who was head of a Taiwan investors’ association in Changsha at the time, is now serving a 38-month prison sentence in Taiwan after he was convicted of election interference crimes.
Lien has been living in Yueyang since 1999 and is married to a Chinese woman, Chinese media said.
In 2007, he became head of the Taiwanese investors service center there and has since organized a series of annual activities for young people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of