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By Lee Wen-hsin, Chen Chih-cheng and Jason Pan / Staff reporters
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Civic groups and members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday urged the removal of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator-at-large Li Zhenxiu (李貞秀) from the legislature, as she holds Chinese nationality.
Citizen Congress Watch said that all evidence indicated that Li had not gone through the process of renunciation of her Chinese citizenship, and therefore, she should not be allowed to remain as a legislator.
Taiwan Society North called Li a serious threat to Taiwan’s constitutional system and urged the government to bar Li from serving as a legislator.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Li Zhenxiu speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: CNA
DPP Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) said he had told Li in 2024 that she must renounce her Chinese nationality, otherwise she would not be able to become a legislator.
Li was on Tuesday sworn in as TPP legislator-at-large at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
She said she had in the past gone to China’s Hunan Province to renounce her citizenship, but was not allowed to do so.
Li said she had submitted her application form to the Ministry of the Interior as proof of taking necessary steps to renounce her Chinese citizenship.
She added that she is a naturalized citizen who loves Taiwan and has been living here for many years.
However, some DPP members called her “a Chinese proxy,” accusing her of infiltrating into Taiwanese society and political circles through a “marriage of convenience,” and saying that she had had four children with her first husband who is Chinese before marrying a Taiwanese man.
Li has one child from her former Taiwanese husband, who she divorced from in 2024.
While talking to reporters on Tuesday, Li said that “I only have citizenship of the People’s Republic of China,” which she later said was a “slip of tongue.”
DPP Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday called the incident a “Freudian slip,” saying that “if Li still has citizenship of a foreign country, she must be disqualified [from becoming a legislator] by law.”
Lin said Li’s situation is a national security concern, adding that Chinese citizens are obliged to cooperate with Chinese Communist Party authorities if they are requested to do so.
New Taipei Councilor and Cho Kuan-ting (卓冠廷), DPP member said that the form Li submitted to the ministry as proof of applying to renounce her Chinese citizenship is questionable, as she had spelled her Latinized name in the Taiwanese way and it contained other flaws.
Cho said the form was “a charade aiming to fool the media and Taiwanese public.”
Li has lived in Taiwan for about 30 years, but had done nothing to renounce her citizenship until last year, he said.
