A situation popped into my imagination today in which a child is born in Mainland China to a mother and father who are naturalized Taiwanese citizens and as such have renounced their previous citizenships/nationalities. Several questions have popped into my head thinking about this.
The PRC government is unlikely to want them as PRC nationals (whereas Taiwanese nationals of Chinese descent are ostensibly considered as PRC nationals), nor can they be considered nationals of any other state. As such, this situation would fall under Article 4 of the PRC nationality law where a child born in China whose parentsā nationalities cannot be determined is given PRC citizenship.
Can we speculate about the ramifications of such a situation and the complications that would exist? Has this ever actually happened?
What types of scenarios could particular different circumstances lead to?
Could this lead to the child holding both a valid genuine PRC passport and a valid genuine ROC passport simultaneously which has probably never occurred in history?
How about one or both of the parents returning to their countries of previous nationalities and resuming citizenship and getting the child registered as a citizen of their countries?
How would the parents obtain travel documents? Would the PRC government grant the child status as a PRC citizen and issue a PRC passport? This applies to regular Taiwanese folk who happen to birth children while in Mainland China: Can they just apply for a Taiwan Compatriot Permit for the child? How is this done for Taiwanese children born within Mainland China? Iām aware of the entry-exit permit that needs to be obtained for foreigners having children to Chinese parents in China, but this situation is a bit different.
I think the most likely outcome is that China would not determine the child to be a citizen under Article 4 and would instead issue a 1951 Convention Travel Document by China to let the child join their parents in returning to Taiwan. But what would the PRC government be implying by doing this?
To enter the PRC the patents would have had ti have use their ROC id to get a taibaozheng in which case they would be in the PRC as Chinese nationals and the child would also be registered as such. The child could leave on an exit permit.
So you are saying that naturalized citizens of Taiwan who enter China on the Taibaozheng (Taiwan Compatriot Permit/Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents) are recognised by the PRC as Chinese nationals? That doesnāt add up to me. What part of the PRC Nationality Law provides for such persons to be recognised as Chinese nationals?
Are you talking about regular Taiwanese parents here?
If the PRC didnāt recognise their nationality by issuing the taibaozheng then they would not be in the PRC. And in that case the whole scenario would never occur in the first place. They only issue taibaozheng to people that they deem to be Chinese nationals, and who are able to show an ROC id.
Iām having very a hard time accepting that the PRC would deem those who have been given Chinese nationality by what they view as a rouge government to be Chinese nationals.
Upon further reflection (and as youāve just pointed out as I type this reply), that taibaozheng å°ččÆ operates almost identically to a shenfenzheng čŗ«ä»½čÆ with perhaps the only exception being for employment purposes. So this casts further doubt on the issue as to whether naturalized citizens of the ROC would even be issued a taibaozheng.
I hope someone who knows more details comes and enlightens us and Iām going to make another post in the naturalization mega thread.
Ok, so the question is simplified to how do ROC nationals who have children in the PRC take their children home with them.
Wow. itās kind of mind-blowing that you can sign up to be a citizen of what a government considers to be a rogue government and that way obtain working rights in the former governmentās jurisdiction.
I wrote this whole post on the premise that those who obtain naturalization in Taiwan would no way be considered nationals by the PRCā¦ but apparently, once they get that taibaozheng, they are. Certainly makes obtaining Taiwanese citizenship more attractive. Iām making the assumption that once you naturalize as a Taiwan citizen and obtain your Taiwan national ID card itās the same procedure as everybody else to get a taibaozheng which Iāll double check on.
Iād guess they probably would issue it, butā¦ I wouldnāt count on it either. But yes, it would be a very nice bonus of ROC citizenship given that youād also get rights in China, presuming of course they would actually give you the paper. In Shanghai a taibaozheng is nearly as good as a local hukou, gives access to social services n everything.
But how would they prove the child has even been born, let alone establish enough identity to obtain a passport? The ROC government is not going to recognise a birth certificate issued by the PRC government, are they? You have to physically present yourself at least somewhere for a government to even consider issuing you a passport. But with nowhere on the mainland to present the childā¦? This is getting into 1951 Convention Travel Document territory. I wonder if any have ever been issued to an infantā¦
ROC does recognize Chinese documents: marriage birth et cetera, Have to go to the public notary in China and they send it via the cross straights foundation to Taipei. Believe it or not Iāve been through that, and surprisingly it does work. But besides that, the Taiwan office in Hong Kong are not exactly in the business of messing things up for Taiwanese, and trapping Taiwanese citizens in China, are they?