TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A new Taiwan People’s Party legislator expected to be sworn in next week will have to give up her Chinese nationality if she wants to stay in office for more than a year, reports said Thursday.

Lee Chen-hsiu will become a lawmaker because the TPP wants all its legislators to resign halfway through their four-year terms to make way for replacements. As a Chinese spouse, Lee has faced doubts about her eligibility.

At a news conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting Thursday, Deputy Interior Minister Tung Chien-hung (董建宏) said that under the Nationality Act, anyone who wants to serve as a government official must abandon any second nationality, the Liberty Times reported.

Lee must make a statement before her swearing-in and complete the procedure to renounce her citizenship within one year, he said.

After she becomes a lawmaker, the ministry would send a letter to the Legislative Yuan asking whether she has abandoned her Chinese nationality, the report said. She would have one year to provide a satisfactory response.

As she has not been sworn in yet, she is still an ordinary citizen who is allowed to hold a second nationality, officials said.

Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said giving up one’s residency status in China was easy, but renouncing citizenship has not been done yet. He advised Lee to try harder, per CNA.

Officials emphasized that the rules were the same for citizens of any country. If they want to serve as government officials, they must renounce all foreign citizenships.