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🇹🇼 Taiwan /Elections & Politics

Taiwan requires 10-year wait after renouncing Chinese citizenship for public office bids

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified New plan
  • Taiwan's Central Election Commission announced new rules requiring individuals with former Chinese citizenship to wait 10 years after renouncing their Chinese household registration before they can register as public office candidates.
  • The regulation aims to prevent individuals from holding dual citizenship and exploiting loopholes in cross-strait regulations, according to Mainland Affairs Council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh.
  • The change is not targeted at any specific case but is a systemic reinforcement based on the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, ensuring proper renunciation procedures are followed.

Taiwan has tightened its regulations for former Chinese citizens seeking to run for public office, requiring a decade-long wait after renouncing their Chinese household registration. The Central Election Commission announced the new rule, which mandates that individuals must have completed their renunciation process and waited 10 years before they are eligible to register as candidates.

The new regulation is not calculated from the start of obtaining a Taiwanese ID card, but is based on the completion of submitting the renunciation certificate.

— Liang Wen-chiehMainland Affairs Council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh explaining the start date for the 10-year waiting period.

Mainland Affairs Council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh explained that the regulation is designed to close a "gray area" created by individuals who held both Taiwanese and Chinese residency. While Taiwan previously required new citizens to return to China to complete their renunciation within three months of receiving a Taiwanese ID, many failed to do so, leading to the dual-status issue.

Liang emphasized that the 10-year period begins from the date the renunciation certificate is submitted, not from when the Taiwanese ID was issued. This measure aims to ensure compliance with the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area and prevent the exploitation of dual identities.

The purpose is to avoid the gray area of dual identities and implement the regulations of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.

— Liang Wen-chiehLiang Wen-chieh on the objective behind the new election eligibility rules.

Responding to speculation that the new rule was prompted by a specific controversy involving a former Chinese spouse, Liang stated that the adjustment is not case-specific. He asserted that the change is a systemic reinforcement to address a long-standing issue of incomplete renunciation procedures since the law's implementation in 1992, and that no political considerations were involved.

This adjustment is not targeted at any individual case, but is based on the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.

— Liang Wen-chiehLiang Wen-chieh addressing claims that the new rules were prompted by a specific controversy.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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