Taipei, Feb. 19 (CNA) In response to a question emailed by a CNA reporter, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) spokesman Thomas Hedges wrote Tuesday that AIT "will consider" responding to issues of U.S. citizenship and permanent residency concerning both of Taiwan's presidential candidates should it receive such inquiries from the Taiwanese authorities.
"AIT would certainly consider responding to an inquiry from the Central Election Commission regarding U.S. citizenship or permanent legal resident status of candidates in the presidential election. To date, AIT has received no such inquiry, " Hodges wrote in an email.
The Central Election Committee (CEC) has requested authorization from both ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Frank Hsieh and Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou in order to verify whether both hold dual citizenship, which would violate Taiwanese election laws, or permanent residency of a foreign country.
Hsieh's camp has recently challenged Ma over his possession of a U.S. green card. Ma claims that the green card, which he obtained while studying in the U.S. in the late 1970s, lost its validity in the mid-1980s after he returned to Taiwan.
The CEC, which listed eight questions in a questionnaire for both campaigns, had not received replies from either Hsieh or Ma, CEC spokesman Deng Tien-yu said that day.
Both were asked to provide their passport numbers, dates of birth, Chinese and English names and say whether they hold U.S. social security numbers, foreign residency or passports.
In addition to the AIT, the CEC will also submit the same inquiries to the representative offices of Japan and the United Kingdom on the matter.
Hsieh studied in Japan and Ma was born in Hong Kong, a former British colony.
In his email response, Hodges wrote that as AIT Taipei Office Director Stephen Young and senior U.S. State Department officials have said on several occasions, the U.S. government has no favorite in the election.
"We will respond to inquiries of this nature in whatever manner best maintains our neutrality in this election, " he wrote.
The AIT declined to comment on the dispute when Hsieh's camp first made the allegation against Ma in late January.