Are Taiwan and China Different Countries?
That's the political conundrum faced by Taiwan/PRC dual citizens who want to be elected to or work in Taiwan's government. Two such "mainland spouses" in this predicament sit down with TaiwanPlus to discuss their political limbo and what they view as discrimination against them by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
There are more than 384,000 citizens from the People's Republic of China (PRC) who are married to Taiwanese citizens. Many have become naturalized citizens in Taiwan and even run for public office. Two women in this category, former Nantou County Councilor from the Kuomintang (KMT) Shi Xueyan and party-list candidate for the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) Li Zhenxiu, are now facing a new ruling from the interior ministry that they must renounce their PRC citizenship in order to serve. The ruling conflicts with other laws, such as the Cross-Strait Act, which do not require such renunciations for those in the "Mainland Area."
That's the political conundrum faced by Taiwan/PRC dual citizens who want to be elected to or work in Taiwan's government. Two such "mainland spouses" in this predicament sit down with TaiwanPlus to discuss their political limbo and what they view as discrimination against them by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
There are more than 384,000 citizens from the People's Republic of China (PRC) who are married to Taiwanese citizens. Many have become naturalized citizens in Taiwan and even run for public office. Two women in this category, former Nantou County Councilor from the Kuomintang (KMT) Shi Xueyan and party-list candidate for the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) Li Zhenxiu, are now facing a new ruling from the interior ministry that they must renounce their PRC citizenship in order to serve. The ruling conflicts with other laws, such as the Cross-Strait Act, which do not require such renunciations for those in the "Mainland Area."
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NewsTranscript
00:00Shi Xueyan is a former councilor for Nantou County in central Taiwan.
00:06A member of the opposition Kuomintang, she finished her term in 2022, so she was surprised
00:12last month when she received a notice nullifying her government service.
00:16I was very upset when I received the notice.
00:19I am not a public official, and I am not a member of the House of Representatives.
00:26The reason?
00:32She was born in China.
00:34Having married a Taiwanese citizen and living in Taiwan for decades, she's a naturalized
00:39citizen here.
00:40But she has never renounced her Chinese citizenship.
00:44She's one of the more than 380,000 mainland Chinese spouses in Taiwan.
00:50Xue says they face discrimination, both in society and in politics.
00:56A Taiwanese law known as the Nationality Act requires that in order to serve in public
01:00office, no other nationalities can be held.
01:04Taiwan's Vice President B. Kim Hsiao, for example, is one of several politicians who
01:09renounced their U.S. citizenship upon entering politics.
01:13But for those with Chinese citizenship, it's not that simple.
01:17The question of whether mainland spouses can serve in Taiwan public office isn't just
01:21about immigration or the rights of naturalized citizens.
01:25It also cuts to the core of one of the biggest questions in Taiwanese society, one that decades
01:31of law and precedent have failed to fully answer.
01:34Are China and Taiwan different countries?
01:37It's widely known that the People's Republic of China, or PRC, claims Taiwan as its territory.
01:43But on paper, at least, it's a two-way street.
01:47Taiwan's official name is the Republic of China, or ROC.
01:51The ROC used to rule all of China before losing the Chinese Civil War, and some argue
01:57the area known as mainland China and beyond are still its territory.
02:02That means that under Taiwanese law, those living in China are not in a separate country,
02:07but are part of the ROC's mainland area, while the actual territory controlled by the
02:12ROC is referred to as the Taiwan area or the Free Area.
02:16A special arrangement is laid out in a law that governs relations between the two sides,
02:21the Cross-Strait Act.
02:23Under that act, it's like it is a special law that is tailor-made for the mainland people.
02:28So the Nationality Act will not trigger to the mainland people.
02:33And when we see what the state under the Cross-Strait Act, it only said that if you stay in Taiwan
02:39for 10 years, you can be a public official.
02:42But like from now on, for the case of Shi, they just consider the nationality law become
02:48the foundation law.
02:50But Shi and her supporters say the government is moving the goalposts.
03:13And Shi says the timing of the decision is intentional.
03:30That party list candidate is Li Zhenxiu.
03:33Like Shi, Li is originally from China, but has lived in Taiwan for more than 30 years.
03:39He's raised five children here and is now a devout Christian.
03:54The Taiwan People's Party, or TPP, has Li in line to take over as a legislator next
03:59year when its incumbents step down.
04:02But it's unclear if she would be able to take office if the new requirement stands.
04:08Also unclear, whether China would allow someone like Li to renounce their citizenship, even
04:13if they wanted to.
04:23China does have a process for renouncing citizenship.
04:27But one requirement is having settled abroad.
04:38Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, which handles cross-strait relations, has defended
04:48the citizenship requirement, stating that whether other countries allow their citizens
04:52to renounce or not is not something they can comment on.
04:56The Interior Ministry has stated that it is not targeting mainland spouses, just enforcing
05:01the law based on the principle of preventing what they call conflicts of loyalty, something
05:07Li and Shi reject.
05:20The controversy has forced Shi and Li to question their own sense of identity.
05:37Shi has filed court proceedings against the Interior Ministry's decision, the result
06:06of which will be critical for Li as well.
06:10As Taiwan continues to struggle with its cross-strait identity, the political futures of hundreds
06:16of thousands of mainland spouses are stuck in limbo.
06:20Ryan Woo, Ed Moon, and Chris Gorin for Taiwan Plus.