Three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators filed a lawsuit against Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) yesterday, accusing him of concealing public documents by failing to disclose information on lawmakers who might hold US citizenship.
Ou, however, said he had spoken with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) shortly after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a response from the US on Monday and Wang had told him not divulge the information because the response was not as straight forward as expected.
It is against the law for ranking public servants to possess either foreign residency or citizenship.
In September, the ministry asked the US for help in determining if any lawmakers held permanent residency or citizenship after a Next Magazine report accused Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) of being a US citizen.
Lee said her US citizenship was automatically revoked when she was sworn in as a Taipei City councilor in 1994.
After meeting with Wang, it was agreed that the ministry would not make the US response public until the US could give a clearer answer, Ou said. He said the ministry had already asked the US for clarification.
Wang confirmed yesterday that the initial information from the US showed that two lawmakers might have dual citizenship.
“He [Ou] said there were two legislators [whose nationality status might be problematic], but so far [the ministry] was unable to determine whether they possessed dual citizenship,” the speaker said, declining to reveal the identity of the legislators.
Wang said Ou had given him the response from the US, but he did not read the document because it was marked confidential.
“One of them reported having studied in the US, but not applying for PR [permanent residency]. It was impossible for the legislator to become a US citizen without having had PR first, so the legislator insisted that the result was absurd,” Wang said.
He said the legislature can only deal with the nationality status of current lawmakers, while former legislators should be dealt with by the judiciary.
He did not elaborate, but former Taiwan Solidarity Union lawmaker George Liu (劉寬平) said in June that he had filed an application to relinquish his US citizenship at the end of last year, but that the process was not yet complete.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated