Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The Gordian knot of nationality

Yu Ying-fu 尤英夫

The Taiwan People’s Party has a two-year clause for its at-large seats in the Legislative Yuan, with eight legislators expected to resign in 2026. Among the nominees for a replacement is Li Zhenxiu (李貞秀), the Chinese spouse of a Taiwanese national. The question is whether she must give up her Chinese nationality.

This issue is simple in some ways and complex in others. The law clearly stipulates that individuals of foreign nationality cannot hold public office in Taiwan. So, according to the law, Li cannot hold public office. The issue becomes more complicated when considering this question: Are those holding People’s Republic of China (PRC) nationality considered foreign nationals? If so, how should one go about renouncing their PRC nationality?

Tackling Trump’s Taiwan strategy

Michael Lin 林正二

US president-elect Donald Trump is to return to the White House in January, but his second term would surely be different from the first. His Cabinet would not include former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and former US national security adviser John Bolton, both outspoken supporters of Taiwan.

Trump is expected to implement a transactionalist approach to Taiwan, including measures such as demanding that Taiwan pay a high “protection fee” or requiring that Taiwan’s military spending amount to at least 10 percent of its GDP.

However, if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) invades Taiwan, it is doubtful that Trump would dispatch US troops in its defense.

University lacking in academic integrity

Mike Chang 張昭仁

In response to alleged plagiarism in Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taoyuan City Councilor Ling Tao’s (凌濤) master’s thesis, the academic ethics committee of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) said that Ling had completed the procedure of adding annotations and replacing the submitted thesis.

Could a thesis that involves plagiarism get away scot-free by adding sources and replacing a thesis that had already been submitted? No, it should not work like that. Such a statement by the NYCU academic ethics committee is shocking and leads people to doubt the academic standards of the school.

Constitutional system under attack

Chen Chi-nung 陳啟濃

Even those without legal training know that the constitution is the most fundamental law of a country. Since the start of the legislative session, three legislators from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) coalition — KMT Legislator Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲), KMT Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) and TPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) — have prioritized the introduction of several amendments that would expand legislative powers.

The goal of these amendments is to help the opposition manipulate the constitutional system, making it easier to comply with the Chinese Communist Party’s requirements for Taiwan and allow the opposition to smoothly seize administrative resources.

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