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Comment by jonp888 | Hacker News Reader

It's pretty disturbing and disgusting that the President would threaten to strip people of their citizenship for having the 'wrong' job.

Is there any crime you could commit in the US that is do bad it would result in loss of citizenship?

No other country would behave this way, but I guess we should expect that from one of only two countries that taxes all it citizens worldwide, even if they've never even visited the US.

Given that US citizenship is difficult and ludicrously expensive to get rid of(presumably as some kind of punishment for wanting to do so) possibly some of these people might actually be happy about if they are dual citizens.

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Generally (and it's still hard in these cases) you can lose your citizenship if you are convicted of treason, found to have served in a hostile foreign country's army, working for a country's government when you are the same nationality, etc.

I'm sure a LOT of countries have laws like these in one form or the other. I'd imagine that the inside baseball on this is the US is effectively declaring China an enemy, and so therefore can make this threat. The only question is how actionable it is.

>"you can lose your citizenship if you are convicted of treason"

Only if the treason was committed with the confirmed intent of loosing a citizenship. Otherwise the citizenship stays.

I found this [0] that the logic followed is a citizenship generally has to be voluntarily resigned but several actions can make you "accidentally voluntarily resign" it so to speak. It's strange to me Biden would do this especially since we aren't in open war with China but every day I wake up this world gets more strange. It does suggest certain crimes must be done with the intent to lose your citizenship as you suggest which makes Biden's action even more dangerous.

[0] https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/when-us-citizens-can...

I did not find anything there that can make one "accidentally voluntarily resign".

>"It's strange to me Biden would do this"

I might have skipped it but where / when did Biden specifically threaten stripping citizenship. The search does not confirm such threats have been made.

https://news.yahoo.com/biden-chip-controls-may-force-0929571...

https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/14/american_tech_workers...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/us/politics/biden-china-t...

By forcing Chinese-Americans in particular (as in Chinese, who also hold American citizenship) to choose between their work or their citizenship he is defacto threatening to strip their US citizenship. Dual citizens have basically been handed a choice: give up your US citizenship to continue working in your field or find work in the US.

Well sorry it is totally different. As US citizens they must follow the laws of the US. Break the law and go to jail. If they do not want to go to jail they must stop working in China. Alternatively they can tell the US to go fuck itself and renounce their US citizenship. But they have to do it explicitly. The US will not strip their citizenship on their own.

This isn't true. US born citizens, excluding those naturalized or with a dual citizenship elsewhere, simply cannot be stripped of citizenship for any reason. Because this would reduce them to statelessness.

Although the UN treaty signed on this isn't binding for the U.S., it would certainly break a taboo and give justification for other countries to reduce their citizens to statelessness while they're in the U.S., thus blocking the possibility of repatriating them back to their home country.

He isn’t threatening to strip anyone of their citizenship. He is making certain acts crimes if they retain citizenship.

The government can't strip people of citizenship for this, but they can make it a crime for citizens to work for these firms. Though if you renounce, it is no longer a crime.

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