"Overseas (Foreign) Citizen of the Republic of China" by HoonTing

It is a custom for Chinese Taipei, the self-proclaimed Government of the Republic of China, to arrange a speech delivered by a distinguished “Overseas Chinese” in the ceremony of the Double-Tenth, the national holiday of ROC.

Being a government-in-exile, Chinese Taipei takes every advantage to highlight its “legitimacy” as the legal government of China and to conceal its diffidence. 

Liu Shie-lin (劉學琳), the “Overseas Chinese” speaker of this year, is a Hakka from Taoyuan, who moved to in Brazil five decades ago.  In his speech, he referred to himself as an “Overseas (Foreign) Citizen of the Republic of China,” which was rare term.

Only a few observers noted that the term, as well as the identity of “Overseas Chinese,” was deliberately transformed into a more specific term of “Overseas Citizen.”

Any “Chinese” who possesses the passport of the ROC was qualified to claim the nationality of her citizen.  However, due to the exile history in 1949, the ROC nationality has been re-arranged and has evolved through a series of legal arrangements:

the Treaty of Taipei of 1952,

Taiwan Relations Act of 1979,

the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area of 1992, and

the Regulations on Non-household Registration Citizens to Travel, Stay and Reside in Taiwan of 2008, in specific.

Now those who are carrying the passport of ROC without the fact of the birth in Taiwan and/or carrying the household registration of Chinese Taipei cannot “restore their ROC nationality.” 

Was that exactly what Mr. Liu expressed in his speech?    Revised at 1420