An administrative mandate to consider Chinese as Taiwanese citizens was outdated, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday, a day after the Executive Yuan ordered that agencies disregard the 30-year-old interpretation.
Chen made the remarks at an event held by the Environmental Protection Administration in Taipei following changes to the administrative mandate concerning 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).
The previous interpretation of the law was archaic and contrary to the workings of laws and regulations, he said, adding that the order was made to avoid unnecessary problems created by the mandate.
Photo: Chen Yi-chuan, Taipei Times
The Mainland Affairs Council would evaluate whether legislative actions would be needed to amend the law, Chen said.
The Executive Yuan’s change came three months after the High Court ordered the Kaohsiung City Government to pay NT$4.63 million (US$150,579) in state compensation after the accidental death of a Chinese citizen surnamed Qian (錢).
Qian was electrocuted by a malfunctioning street light while cycling in Kaohsiung’s Lujhu District (路竹) during a round-the-nation cycling tour in August 2018.
The man’s family was to receive reparations, despite the absence of reciprocal restitution arrangements with Beijing, as Chinese citizens are deemed Republic of China (ROC) nationals under the law, the court said in its ruling, citing a clarification issued by the Mainland Affairs Council.
This interpretation is contrary to mutual nonsubordination of Taiwan and China, and the apparent difference between Chinese and ROC nationals, the Executive Yuan said.
Starting from the day of issuance, the administrative mandate has been removed, and all government agencies are to amend regulations and policies accordingly, it said.
“That only ROC citizens have the rights of being Taiwanese is the [interpretation] that conforms with the spirit of the rule of law in a democratic nation,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) wrote on Facebook yesterday.
The administrative mandate has supported cognitive warfare by China, DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) added.
The order from the Cabinet would mean that judges would no longer be required to confer ROC national status to people from China, he said, adding that any such ruling would be “the personal ideological problems of the judge.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee De-wei (李德維) was cited by the Chinese-language China Times as saying that the Executive Yuan’s order is a political attack on the integrity of the judiciary and laws.
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
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
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS