I thought a translation of this old article would make an appropriate post for the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq: singer-songwriter Lo Ta-yu, a naturalised U.S. citizen, renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2004 to protest a Congressional resolution calling on Taiwan to deploy troops in support of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. In contrast to the tiresome mainstream media portrayal of renunciants as “wealthy businesspeople fleeing the country”, Lo is a far more typical example of the type of person who gives up citizenship: someone who emigrated from U.S. to pursue opportunities elsewhere, and only many years later decided that he needed to take a clear stand to protest the U.S. government’s arrogant interference in the country where he chose to live.
