Civic groups and members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday urged the removal of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator-at-large Li Zhenxiu (李貞秀) from the legislature, as she holds Chinese nationality.
Citizen Congress Watch said that all evidence indicated that Li had not gone through the process of renunciation of her Chinese citizenship, and therefore, she should not be allowed to remain as a legislator.
Taiwan Society North called Li a serious threat to Taiwan’s constitutional system and urged the government to bar Li from serving as a legislator.
Photo: CNA
DPP Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) said he had told Li in 2024 that she must renounce her Chinese nationality, otherwise she would not be able to become a legislator.
Li was on Tuesday sworn in as TPP legislator-at-large at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
She said she had in the past gone to China’s Hunan Province to renounce her citizenship, but was not allowed to do so.
Li said she had submitted her application form to the Ministry of the Interior as proof of taking necessary steps to renounce her Chinese citizenship.
She added that she is a naturalized citizen who loves Taiwan and has been living here for many years.
However, some DPP members called her “a Chinese proxy,” accusing her of infiltrating into Taiwanese society and political circles through a “marriage of convenience,” and saying that she had had four children with her first husband who is Chinese before marrying a Taiwanese man.
Li has one child from her former Taiwanese husband, who she divorced from in 2024.
While talking to reporters on Tuesday, Li said that “I only have citizenship of the People’s Republic of China,” which she later said was a “slip of tongue.”
DPP Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday called the incident a “Freudian slip,” saying that “if Li still has citizenship of a foreign country, she must be disqualified [from becoming a legislator] by law.”
Lin said Li’s situation is a national security concern, adding that Chinese citizens are obliged to cooperate with Chinese Communist Party authorities if they are requested to do so.
New Taipei Councilor and Cho Kuan-ting (卓冠廷), DPP member said that the form Li submitted to the ministry as proof of applying to renounce her Chinese citizenship is questionable, as she had spelled her Latinized name in the Taiwanese way and it contained other flaws.
Cho said the form was “a charade aiming to fool the media and Taiwanese public.”
Li has lived in Taiwan for about 30 years, but had done nothing to renounce her citizenship until last year, he said.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS