2025 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 7(2) citizenship within Taiwan.36 In its 2020 report, the Variety of Democracy Institute (‘V-Dem’) pointed out that Taiwan was ranked 37th under the Liberal Democracy Index (‘LDI’) worldwide.37 Ensuing V-Dem annual reports indicate that Taiwan has continued to progress as a liberal democracy, advancing from rank 33 to 31 on the LDI from 2021 to 2025. 38 As members of a fully-fledged democracy, Taiwanese citizens enjoy rights that allow them to participate in society and in the political system. The experience of Taiwanese citizenship outside of Taiwan, however, is a different story. Taiwanese people confront different degrees of citizenship denial in the international community. Without de jure recognition, the establishment of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and other states has not been formalised. Taiwan’s relationship to other states on an international level does not embody the sovereign equality of states in international law. With such contestation, Taiwan cannot fully participate in the international community, as it requires the full legal personhood that comes with recognition as a sovereign state for the state to be accorded many international rights and obligations. For example, according to the terms established by the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (‘Vienna Convention’), receiving states of citizens from sending states have the duty to inform sending states when their citizens are arrested.39 Due to Taiwan’s contested statehood, Taiwan is not a party to such a treaty. Even if the consular right for communication with arrested nationals is considered part of customary international law, as it is practised by most states who are parties to the treaty, Taiwan’s irregular sovereignty and its absence of formal diplomatic relations with member states excludes Taiwan from such international law practices in many cases. The consular right often serves as a shield for nationals in foreign territories or states, but the Taiwanese Government cannot effectively assist its nationals in this way. Because of the lack of de jure recognition for statehood, Taiwanese citizenship contains within it an inherited vulnerability due to the lack of formal recognition by other states. This makes the Taiwanese citizenship status unstable when its citizens are not in Taiwan, as foreign states are not bound by the obligations of international law to negotiate with the Taiwanese Government for Taiwanese citizens’ rights and welfare. For Taiwanese citizens, this uncertainty of citizenship is not only a matter of legal recognition, but also a factor that impacts their daily lives on the international stage. 36 37 38 39 Jing-Han Chen and Yi-Chen Huang, ‘Report on Citizenship Law: Taiwan’ (RSC/GLOBALCIT-CR 2024/01, Global Citizenship Observatory (‘GLOBALCIT’) Robert Schumann Centre for Advanced Studies, March 2024). Anna Lührmann et al, ‘Autocratisation Surges – Resistance Grows’ (Democracy Report 2020, Varieties of Democracy Institute (‘V-Dem’), 2020) 30. See, Nord et al, ‘25 Years of Autocratisation – Democracy Trumped? (Democracy Report 2025, V-Dem, 2025) 62; Nord et al, ‘Democracy Winning and Losing at the Ballot’ (Democracy Report 2024, V-Dem, 2024) 62; Evie Papada et al, ‘Defiance in the Face of Autocratisation’ (Democracy Report 2023, V-Dem, 2023) 44; Vanessa A Boese et al, ‘Autocratizstion Changing Nature?’ (Democracy Report 2022, V-Dem, 2022) 32; Nazifa Alizada et al, ‘Autocratisation Turns Viral’ (Democracy Report 2021, V-Dem, 2021) 34. Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, opened for signature 24 April 1963, 596 UNTS 261 (entered into force 19 March 1967) art 36(1)(b) (‘Vienna Convention’) outlines the obligation of the receiving state to promptly inform the consular post of the sending state if one of its nationals is arrested, imprisoned, held in custody pending trial, or detained in any way within the consular district. Furthermore, any communication from the detained person to their consular post must be promptly forwarded by the receiving state authorities. The authorities are also required to promptly inform the detained individual of their rights under this provision. 108