Malta’s special envoy to China is a Chinese citizen. So who is she working for exactly, and who else is paying her?

The Malta Independent reported last Sunday, almost as an aside, that Mrs Konrad Mizzi has dual citizenship. She is still a citizen of China. The big news – released, probably inadvertently, by a government spokesman – was buried in a wider report, but because of its implications, it should have been a stand-alone headliner.

Chinese citizens are not allowed to hold citizenship of another country. When Mrs Konrad Mizzi acquired Maltese citizenship in 2006, she was neither a special envoy nor married to a government minister, so we have to ask why China bent the rules and allowed her to retain her Chinese citizenship. Who exactly is Mrs Konrad Mizzi working for, and who besides the government of Malta is paying her?

Even if there were nothing sinister in this set-up, what we have here is a Chinese woman born and raised in China of Chinese parents and 100% Chinese heritage, who is a citizen of China but who also has a Maltese passport and is supposed to be working for Malta’s interests in what is her real home country. Exactly where do her loyalties lie and which citizenship has the greater pull? The one she was born with, I would say, and not the one she acquired by suffering marriage to Konrad Mizzi for five years.

Today The Malta Independent reports the story beneath.

———–

Our sister newspaper The Malta Independent on Sunday published a story in its last edition where it was revealed that Mrs Sai Mizzi Liang has dual citizenship – something which is not usually permissible in China.

The information was given by the office of the Prime Minister. According to the Government Gazette, Ms Mizzi Liang has been a Maltese citizen since October 2006. If she holds Chinese citizenship now, that suggests she never gave it up.

As a representative of Malta’s government in China, she should explain why and how she was allowed to retain her Chinese nationality. The situation suggests that political connections and loyalties in China have made this possible. That is an unhealthy situation for someone who is supposed to represent Malta’s interests, rather than China’s.

Factor in the PM’s declaration that the recent MOU was largely thanks to her. If that’s the case, it means she has very senior connections despite being quite young and despite having lived out of the country for years and at a time when political power networks were being reconfigured once Xi Jinping became China’s leader.

An influential network isn’t built in a few months by a complete nobody, let alone in a place like China where power structures are rigidly hierarchical. It took 25 years of Nationalist Governments in Malta to practically achieve….nothing with China. Not one euro cent of investment.

Malta’s official ambassador – the real one – said in an interview last week that it is difficult to get access to senior officials. This is a man who has lived in China since the 1970s, was Malta’s first diplomat in the 1980s, has worked there professionally every since, and who is a close friend of a CPC propaganda official turned billionaire property magnate.

If he can’t get access, how did Sai Mizzi Liang do that in under 12 months? She’s either very well connected through her family or she’s working for someone who is very well connected but wants to remain hidden. She said she is not the daughter of a senior communist official.

As we said in our Sunday paper, Chinese nationals can hold dual nationality only under very specific conditions. Being born abroad is one of them. To our knowledge, Mrs Mizzi Liang was born in China. Her family is from Liaoning province, on the border with North Korea. She went to Dalian university, which is in the same province. However, that alone doesn’t mean much as Dalian university draws in students from other parts of China.

If Sai Mizzi Laing does not meet any of the official conditions for dual nationality specified by Chinese law – her freedom to hold dual nationality must be for unofficial conditions. Or for reasons that are not meant to be public, hence her speedy rise to power.

Dual nationality is possible under unofficial conditions: 1) obtaining citizenship of another country by secret means, e.g. buying a passport and not letting China’s government know; 2) having the rules bent in your favour.

The procedure for Malta’s granting citizenship to applicants from countries that do not allow dual nationality is formal and governed by laws, rules and regulations, including diplomatic protocols and agreements.

Even if Malta weren’t bound by diplomatic protocol, the very publication of a Chinese citizen’s name in the official register of new citizens would normally lead China to unilaterally withdraw that person’s Chinese citizenship.

We know this from reports that China is demanding lists of people who buy passports in other jurisdictions where the publication of names is not routine.

Sai Mizzi’s name was published in Malta’s government gazette in 2006 so it is reasonable to assume that the Chinese government knew that she had taken up Maltese nationality then and has allowed her to hold Chinese nationality since. If her Chinese nationality wasn’t withdrawn automatically, why did it happen?

Given that Sai Mizzi Liang is engaged as a trade envoy on Malta’s behalf and paid ‘like an ambassador’, her loyalty to Malta is a matter of public interest. Her Chinese nationality, and the means by which she probably retained it poses some serious questions which we at The Malta Independent have been trying to probe.

Of course, there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this, in which case the PM or Mrs Sai Mizzi Liang should give it without waiting for nearly a year without a peep.