Interviews for Chinese spouses may be tightened

Media reports recently said the Ministry of Interior is planning to abolish the interview system for Chinese spouses when it upgrades the Bureau of Immigration to the Immigration Administration later this year.

But the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and vice Minister of the Interior Yan Wan-chin both denied this.

“In future, after the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization is set up, the interview system will be implemented even more,” a MAC statement said.

Beijing claims Taiwan is a renegade Chinese province and shuns official contact with Taipei, amid squabbles over Taiwan’s international status.

Despite this, government officials say the number of illegal Chinese immigrants in Taiwan is rising rapidly, with immigrants lured by the attractions of the island’s wealthier economy.

The diplomatic freeze means that Taipei cannot collaborate with Beijing to manage the problem of illegal immigrants.

“The stance of this council is that interview measures should be improved and implemented even more thoroughly,” the MAC said.

“Measures to interview the Taiwanese spouse before the Chinese spouse enters Taiwan should also be stepped up ... to catch fake marriages,” the MAC said.

The MAC said cross-strait intermarriages were widespread between 2002 and 2003, just before the interview system was set up, at that time forming the greatest channel for illegal immigration.

The system of holding face-to-face interviews at special counters in Taiwan’s two international airports and international harbors when Chinese spouses enter the country is in place because Taiwan does not have a representative office in China where it can conduct interviews.

Chinese found during the interview process to have fake marriages are denied entry into Taiwan’s borders and repatriated.

It said 100,000 people had been interviewed after the system first started in late 2003.

A total of around 24,000 Chinese have been turned away at Taiwan’s borders in the last two years, after Taiwanese officials found their marriages were suspect during these interviews.

The MAC said there were over 39,000 cross-strait marriages in 2003. But after the interview system started, the number of cross-strait marriages dropped by over 10,000 to 26,000 in 2004. Of these marriages, only 11,000 of these couples were permitted to live in Taiwan. In 2005, around 25,000 Chinese married Taiwanese. But only 14,000 of these couples actually entered Taiwan.

Media reports said the government was planning to replace the interview system with a new system of random checks for cross-strait couples after they came to live in Taiwan.

But the MAC said it did not believe this system would be effective.

“The movements of peoples on both sides of the Taiwan Strait need to be effectively managed before they can be actively liberalized,” the council said.

“Before effective management is set up, there is no room for adjusting our ways of administering the interview system,” the council said.

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