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After announcing her participation in politics, it was reported that Lai Peixia was nominated for the 58th Golden Bell Award for Supporting Actress for this year’s hit Netflix series “The Chosen One.” The show’s plot about sexual harassment in political circles even ignited Taiwan’s #MeToo movement.
Taiwanese tycoon Terry Gou, founder of Hon Hai, yesterday (September 14) announced entertainer and writer Lai Peixia as his deputy to run for Taiwan’s president, triggering a commotion in public opinion across Taiwan. Most people believe that Lai Peixia’s public role as a good communicator can add points to Terry Gou.
However, a few hours later, her dual citizenship of Taiwan and the United States attracted attention.
According to Article 27 of Taiwan’s President and Vice President Election and Recall Law, persons with foreign nationality are not allowed to apply to register as candidates. In the face of doubts, Gou Taiming’s campaign office immediately stated yesterday (14th) that the office has arranged lawyers as soon as possible to assist Lai Peixia in applying to renounce her U.S. citizenship, and “will contact the relevant lawyers today for assistance.”
According to Taiwan’s election regulations, there are 70 days left to register to participate in next year’s presidential election. However, renunciation of U.S. citizenship generally takes a long time. Therefore, whether Lai Peixia can successfully register to run for office in mid-November has become the focus of attention from all walks of life.
How to renounce U.S. citizenship?
According to the website of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), U.S. citizens in Taiwan who apply to renounce their U.S. citizenship can apply for a form that will take 7 to 10 working days to review and make an appointment with a U.S. consular officer from AIT for an interview. , read out the declaration of renunciation of nationality. The official document will then be sent to the U.S. Department of State for review and ruling, and then a certificate will be sent to the party concerned. After receiving the documents, the parties concerned must return to AIT once to declare the renunciation of U.S. citizenship before it can officially take effect.
The AIT website explains that the renunciation process can take up to 6 months, and the website also says that “it is not possible to expedite the processing of renunciation applications.”
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Taiwanese tycoon Terry Gou announced Lai Peixia as his deputy, triggering a commotion in public opinion across Taiwan.
Wu Zheng, who is running for the New Taipei City Legislative Council, described on Facebook how he gave up his American citizenship. He said that the procedure is very complicated. In addition to making an appointment for an interview, if the U.S. government determines that the person intends to evade taxes or get out of business by giving up nationality, it may not approve the relinquishment of U.S. citizenship. Wu Zheng said that he later paid US$2,350 in related fees, and the application process took more than a month.
Since Lai Peixia participated in Taiwan’s political election, which greatly affected the relationship between the United States, China and Taiwan, it is still unknown whether her case will receive assistance from the United States to expedite the review of her application to renounce her nationality.
Past cases
In Taiwanese politics, there are well-known cases of politicians stepping down due to their dual citizenship. In 1994, the then Kuomintang Taipei City Councilor Li Qing’an questioned the then Taipei City Deputy Mayor Chen Shimeng’s dual citizenship of Taiwan and the United States, and the latter resigned and resigned.
In 2008, Li Qing’an, who himself served as a legislator, was also exposed by his opponents as having dual citizenship of the United States and Taiwan. At that time, the Democratic Progressive Party caucus claimed that during his tenure as a city councilor and a legislator for three terms, he deliberately concealed his dual nationality and fraudulently received more than NT$102.77 million in salary and other expenses, triggering a storm in the political arena. Because of this case, Li Qing’an was prosecuted by Taiwan prosecutors for defrauding civil servants’ salaries. The case lasted for many years. Li Qing’an, who was originally regarded as a blue-camp political star, quit the Kuomintang and left politics.
Since Li Qing’an’s case had a great impact on Taiwan’s political scene, Lai Peixia’s application for revocation of U.S. citizenship is testing Gou Taiming’s team.
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According to Article 27 of Taiwan’s President and Vice President Election and Recall Law, persons with foreign nationality are not allowed to apply to register as candidates.
Lai Peixia was born in Taipei in 1963 and debuted as a singer at the age of 18. He released his first album in 1984 and has since participated in many TV series and stage plays. Lai Peixia is not a big hit in the Taiwanese art scene, and she semi-retired very early to manage her family and personal growth. However, because of her Western and literary image, she has rarely received any negative news and has a good public image. In recent years, she has been traveling in the “body, body and soul” world and performing career as a writer and “spiritual guru”. After she announced her participation in politics yesterday, it was reported that she was nominated for the 58th Golden Bell Award for Supporting Actress for this year’s hit Netflix series “The Chosen One.” The show became a huge hit after it debuted this summer. Among them, stories about sexual harassment in political circles even ignited the #MeToo movement in Taiwan.
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2023-09-15 09:56:51
