This English version may have been machine-generated from the Chinese original and may not convey the original meaning accurately.
It has been reported that some commentators point out that under the CCP's legal framework, Taiwanese people do not need to go through any "restoration of nationality" procedures at all—the authorities have already legally presupposed that they hold full jurisdiction over them. This seemingly technical legal detail actually reflects the most fundamental power logic of a one-party dictatorship: the sovereign unilaterally declares its dominion over individuals, while individuals have no room whatsoever to object or refuse.
What deserves further scrutiny is this: in a normal modern state, the acquisition, loss, and restoration of nationality should be based on individual will and due process—application, review, public notice, and judicial remedy are all indispensable. Yet when a regime can bypass these procedures and simply declare "you are already my national," this is no longer a legal issue but a naked assertion of power: law is not a framework for safeguarding rights, but a tool for the self-expansion of power.
This logic is not an isolated case. From the "re-education" in Xinjiang, the extraterritorial application of Hong Kong's National Security Law, to rumors of "long-arm jurisdiction" over overseas Chinese and international students, the common feature of the CCP's governing techniques is: power precedes law, and law serves power rather than constraining it. In a system lacking an independent judiciary and multi-party competition, any "law" can be reinterpreted at any time, and any determination of identity can be unilaterally declared. Citizens (or those "designated" as citizens) have no independent courts to appeal to, no representative bodies to hold power accountable, and no news media to expose the truth and generate oversight pressure.
The reason Taiwanese people's situation is "even more vulnerable" is precisely because Taiwan has never lived under CCP rule, yet is still being incorporated into the scope of jurisdiction that the CCP has set for itself—this exposes the essence of the problem: this is not a technical issue of nationality law, but an external extension of totalitarian logic. Once an unchecked power possesses the ability to unilaterally define "who is my national," it also possesses the ability to define "who can be tried, controlled, or disappeared." The abuse of the power to determine nationality is, in essence, the same disease manifesting in different symptoms as speech censorship, lack of judicial independence, and the cross-border pursuit of dissidents: power that is not subject to checks and balances.
Only constitutional democracy can restore the determination of citizenship to procedural justice—the acquisition and loss of citizenship must be explicitly provided for by law, with judicial review and channels for remedy. Only the separation of three powers can prevent executive power from turning "the right to interpret law" into a "self-authorization certificate." Only judicial independence can give every person whose identity has been unilaterally "determined" an equal chance to contest it. Only freedom of the press and speech can ensure that such legal power grabs are exposed, questioned, and corrected as soon as they occur.
Identity should not be something bestowed or imposed by power, but rather the result of an individual's free choice, respected by the state in accordance with law. When a regime can declare you its "national" without your consent, this in itself is the most direct negation of individual dignity. Only by establishing a constitutional order in which power is limited, the judiciary is independent, and citizens' rights are actionable and remediable can the absurdity of such "legally presupposed jurisdiction" be completely ended.
News Background: The original report on which this commentary is based can be found at Deutsche Welle: DW-WORLD.DE.
这就是典型的强权与霸凌。