The Central Election Commission (CEC) must nullify the election of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Shao-ting (黃紹庭) today because he is a US citizen, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, panning the commission for not including the issue in today’s CEC meeting agenda.
DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said the CEC had dragged its feet on the issue of Huang’s status in the last two meetings.
“However, when former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator George Liu (劉寬平) was found to have US citizenship, it took the CEC one meeting to annul the election result and invalidate his election certificate,” said Cheng, adding that the CEC must hold a by-election to fill the vacancy.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office should also investigate whether Huang committed fraud by accepting regular paychecks from the government during his stint in office, Cheng said.
In April, media reports claimed that Huang still had US citizenship, but he denied it, saying he gave up his US passport “a long time ago.”
In May, the American Institute in Taiwan confirmed that Huang relinquished his citizenship last year.
Huang was elected in late 2006. His position as secretary-general of the KMT caucus at the council was suspended following the allegation about his citizenship.
The Nationality Act (國籍法) prohibits government officials from holding dual citizenship and obliges those with a second nationality to renounce it before being sworn in. The Act also requires that they present proof within one year of assuming office that they have renounced their second citizenship.
DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday said Huang had used his US passport to travel in and out of Taiwan on numerous occasions while serving as a Kaohsiung city councilor.
“There is ample evidence to prove that he has violated the Nationality Act. It all depends on the CEC — if it has the guts to use the evidence against Huang and act like an independent commission, as it was intended to be,” she said.
CEC Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天祐) yesterday rebutted the DPP accusation.
“[The DPP’s accusation] is not true — we’ve discussed Huang’s case in two meetings already, and CEC members decided at the meetings to ask Huang about his side of the story,” Teng told the Taipei Times by telephone.
He said Huang’s case would not be discussed at the meeting today because the commission was still waiting for a response from the US government regarding Huang’s citizenship status.
Teng said that following a request by the commission on June 30, Huang authorized the CEC to check his US citizenship status with the US government.
“We issued a request to the US government as soon as we received permission from Huang on July 14,” Teng said. “But we haven’t heard from them yet.”
Teng also denied the DPP allegation that it only took the CEC one meeting to revoke Liu’s status as a lawmaker because Liu held US citizenship during his term as a legislator from 2004 to 2007.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
CONSISTENT COMMITMENT: The American Institute in Taiwan director said that the US would expand investment and trade relationships to make both nations more prosperous The US would not abandon its commitment to Taiwan, and would make Taiwan safer, stronger and more prosperous, American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said. “The US’ commitment to Taiwan has been consistent over many administrations and over many years, and we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, including our opposition to any attempt to use force or coercion to change Taiwan’s status,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Friday last week, which was published in the Chinese-language newspaper yesterday. The US would double down on its efforts
RSS