Exploring Atypical Citizenship Deprivation and Spillover Effects government of Taiwan rather than that of China.49 Other states attribute these links not to Taiwan but to the PRC. This raises the question of whether, after a traveller or immigrant demonstrates a genuine connection with a conferring state or political entity (such as Taiwan), the destination state can refuse to recognise their nationality (Taiwanese) based on their home country’s disputed sovereignty. The situation parallels Russia strategically naturalising Crimeans and Ukrainians, 50 where Russia has used nationality as a geopolitical tool amidst conflicts between states and to stabilise their newly instituted regime. 51 It is worth noting that individuals from unrecognised territories such as Abkhazia or South Ossetia may voluntarily apply for the citizenship of a state involved in sovereignty disputes, such as Russia.52 However, involuntary naturalisation can be seen as a tool for the state to argue for its representation and governance of the people, impairing the sovereignty of the original conferring state. In summary, shifting individuals’ genuine links from a contested sovereignty, Taiwan, to another state, China, creates a false link between people and that other state, a link that does not align with the facts or principles of international law. This situation contradicts the aim of examining connections between nationals and states: to ensure genuine and effective ties between people and the conferring state when recognising a person’s nationality. Mis-recognising a person’s nationality may result in violations of other rights. When a foreign authority mis-recognises nationality, it may treat the person concerned as a national of a different state rather than as someone of their actual nationality. The false nationality supersedes the original one, and the shift in citizenship recognition impacts not only citizenship rights but also other rights gained via citizenship. In terms of shifts in recognition of citizenship, the imposed nationality process has become an atypical deprivation of citizenship. Depriving or granting citizenship is the sovereign right of the state concerned, while the recognition of that citizenship by other states typically occurs through tertiary rules, such as diplomatic recognition and their own legal and political considerations. However, in cases of contested citizenship, foreign states may make arbitrary decisions on contested citizenship that not only reject the genuine 49 50 51 52 Some people may consider the People’s Republic of China (‘PRC’) citizenship as a ‘dormant’ nationality to the Taiwanese people. However, the Republic of China (‘ROC’) and PRC citizens do not easily obtain each other’s citizenship by relocation to either territory. Furthermore, citizens of the ROC or the PRC can only hold one citizenship of either side, and they are requested to give up their full citizenship when they register themselves in the other citizenship system. Such a procedure could resemble the naturalisation procedure. Therefore, the PRC nationality is hardly a dormant nationality for citizens of the ROC. In addition, with dormant nationality, it should also be based on citizens’ will to decide whether one person would like to reactivate the citizenship. See Ruth Donner, ‘Dual Nationality in International Law’ (2006) 47(1) Acta Juridica Hungarica [Hungarian Journal of Legal Studies] 15. United Nations Human Rights Council, ‘Situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)’, UN Doc A/HRC/36/CRP.3 (25 September 2017); Sam Wrighton, ‘Authoritarian regime stabilisation through legitimation, popular co-optation, and exclusion: Russian pasportizatsiya strategies in Crimea’ 2018 15(2) Globalisations 283. These include people in Crimea, Eastern Ukraine, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. See Ramesh Ganohariti, ‘Politics of Passportisation and Territorial Conflicts’ in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies 1148. (Springer International Publishing 2022); Stefan Wolff, ‘Georgia: Abkhazia and South Ossetia’, Encyclopedia Princetoniensis (Web Page, 2025) <https://pesd.princeton.edu/node/706>, archived at <perma.cc/QPX8-JG35>. Anne Peters, ‘Extraterritorial Naturalisations: Between the Human Right to Nationality, State Sovereignty and Fair Principles of Jurisdiction’ (2010) 53(1) German Yearbook of International Law 623. 111