A Chinese influencer has had her Taiwan residency revoked. Immigration authorities say she posted social media videos advocating for Taiwan's unification with China by force. The authorities say she violated the law that regulates her residency as a Chinese citizen in Taiwan, which can be revoked if she threatens national security or social stability.
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00:00A Chinese social media influencer living in Taiwan has had her residency revoked.
00:06Authorities say she poses a national security threat because of pro-unification videos she
00:11posted online.
00:12Cadence Caronta has been following this story and joins us now from our newsroom.
00:17Cadence, how is the government able to take away someone's residency like this?
00:22Yeah, so as you said, this is about a Chinese influencer known as Yaya in Taiwan.
00:29She has a Taiwanese residency card because she's married to a Taiwanese citizen and she
00:34lives in Taiwan.
00:35But importantly, she's not a Taiwanese citizen.
00:38And Taiwan's Immigration Bureau has said that she's posted videos on social media advocating
00:43for the unification of China and Taiwan with the use of force.
00:48And if you look at her social media, a lot of her videos are about cross-strait issues
00:52and unification.
00:53Let's take a look at one of those videos.
00:55So, it's videos like this that have worried authorities here.
01:23Taiwan's Immigration Bureau has revoked her residency and it says she will have to leave
01:27Taiwan and she won't be able to apply for another residency card for five years.
01:32Today, this is what one Taiwanese official said about the decision.
01:59So why is this controversial?
02:01The influencer says that if she can't say what she wants to online, then what is the
02:04meaning of free speech in Taiwan?
02:07And she also says that she lives in Taiwan, so no one wants peace more than her between
02:12the two sides.
02:13The government is constantly trying to combat what they say is Chinese propaganda and infiltration
02:18of Taiwan.
02:20And this just highlights what they have to balance between trying to maintain freedom
02:25of speech and trying to protect their own sovereignty.