Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Fu Kun-chi/Facebook
THE KMT COURTS controversy once again, with plans by the party to fast-track a bill that could allow PRC nationals to take up public office without giving up their original nationality.
Current laws require that individuals who hold public office must possess only one nationality, which is ROC nationality. Article 20 of the Nationality Act requires that individuals holding public office give up all other nationalities within one year of taking office, or face removal from office. As such, under Article 20 of the Nationality Act, individuals holding US citizenship would also be required to give up such citizenship within one year of taking public office.
KMT legislators, including legislative caucus leader Fu Kun-chi, however, would exempt PRC nationals from this requirement. Fu and other KMT politicians claim that this is a means of defending the interests of Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who have, in this way, acquired Taiwanese nationality.
In particular, Fu and other KMT politicians have taken up this stance after several cases in which PRC nationals holding public office did not provide proof that they had given up their PRC nationality. Other KMT legislators, such as Lo Chih-chiang, have taken the view that this is the legitimate right of Chinese spouses of Taiwanese.
This is far from the first move aimed at benefiting Chinese spouses of Taiwanese in recent memory by the KMT. Last year, the KMT introduced a bill that would have lowered the naturalization period for Chinese spouses of Taiwanese from six years to four years.
Broadly speaking, the KMT has long framed itself as the defender of the interests of Chinese spouses in Taiwan. The KMT is thought to benefit from the electoral support of Chinese spouses of Taiwanese, though there are also cases of KMT legislators publicly targeting Chinese spouses who are public figures it perceives as aligning with the DPP, in spite of the potential repercussions from China.
Nevertheless, it, too, is the case that the Lai administration has made the issue of Chinese spouses into a battleground issue with the KMT. This began most visibly with the “Yaya in Taiwan” case, in which several female Chinese streamers supportive of the military annexation of Taiwan by China had their residencies invalidated over public statements in support of unification between Taiwan and China by force. Since then, the Lai administration has required Chinese living in Taiwan to provide proof of having given up their Chinese household registration if they wished to keep their permanent residency in Taiwan, then a notarized certificate showing that they do not have or are not applying for a Chinese passport.
The issue of Chinese spouses holding public office has come up several times in connection with the KMT’s aligned third party, the TPP. A two-year rotation period for legislators representing the TPP could have possibly led to Chinese spouse Lee Zhen-xiu taking office as a legislator. The TPP also previously considered fielding naturalized Chinese national Xu Chunying, the chair of the Taiwan New Residents Development Association, as a candidate. Xu later came under fire for allegedly being a CCP member and now faces charges over defrauding banks and accepting funding from the Chinese government to support its preferred candidates in Taiwan.
For its part, the Lai administration has sought to counter the KMT’s claims that it targets Chinese spouses. In public comments, President Lai Ching-te stated that there is no need to exempt Chinese residents of Taiwan from loyalty requirements for holding public office, citing several naturalized Chinese residents of Taiwan that he viewed as having contributed to society. Moreover, Lai suggested that social skepticism of Chinese residents of Taiwan would, in fact, increase if naturalized Chinese were exempted from loyalty requirements as giving up other nationalities.
Still, it proves a question as to why the KMT has decided to fast-track the bill. Moves by the Lai administration targeting Chinese streamers supportive of armed annexation were in themselves controversial among the public, but Taiwanese society is still likely to react with alarm at the prospect of Chinese nationals being allowed to hold elected office without giving up their original citizenship–and special exemptions on this front made for only Chinese nationals. It would not even be surprising if the move leads to the outbreak of spontaneous protests against the KMT.