MAC rebuts Chinese spouses’ accusations

The official was responding to claims made by Chinese spouses during a protest that morning in Taipei.

“Nearly 40,000 Chinese spouses apply to emigrate to Taiwan per year,” said Liu Teh-shun, MAC spokesperson, during a regular news briefing that afternoon. “However, less than 250,000 citizens have actually registered their wedding with a Chinese spouse, out of more than 300,000 unions in total.”

Liu added that “60 percent of Chinese spouses can work,” and noted that some divorce their Taiwan partners as soon as they have obtained a Taiwan ID.

Meanwhile, a group of Chinese spouses of Taiwanese lodged a protest that morning against the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration over what they called “declining human rights” in Taiwan. The group was accompanied by members of Chunghua Cross-Strait Marriage Consultation Association, which further called for the DPP administration to respect the basic rights of Chinese spouses.

During a press conference at the National Immigration Agency, several unnamed participants said they hoped to adapt to their new lives in Taiwan as soon as possible after marrying their Taiwan husbands.

However, “unreasonable policies” promoted by the government — including the interview policy upon arrival, a long waiting period for ROC citizenship and restrictions on working in Taiwan — have made their lives in Taiwan increasingly difficult, they said.

They noted that since the Republic of China government opened the door to cross-strait marriages in 1987, mainland Chinese spouses living in Taiwan have endured “extremely unfair treatment” in terms of their daily lives and their status in Taiwan. They cited a MAC policy initiative in 2002 that suggested extending the waiting period for Chinese spouses to be able to obtain ROC citizenship from eight to 11 years. The proposition was later dropped under lobbying from advocacy groups, but the MAC then imposed a quota system for citizenship application, they complained.

The DPP administration has also launched an interview policy in recent years to screen inbound Chinese spouses with questions considered by objective observers as infringing on their privacy, they noted.

They added that in June this year, the Ministry of the Interior publicized a new demography white paper, in which quotas for Chinese spouses to obtain legal residency were further restricted. As a result, they said, all quotas for Chinese spouses settling in Taiwan, for short- or long-term stays, were limited substantially.

In addition, they said, since Sept. 1 Chinese spouses of Taiwan nationals intending to visit the country for the first time after their marriage have been required to produce properly verified clean bills of health issued by state-run hospitals, legally licensed private hospitals or university-affiliated hospitals and certified by an officially designated Chinese notary agency. The clean bill of health must also be certified by Taiwan’s quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation to prove the document’s validity. Currently, according to the association, there are more than 250,000 mainland Chinese spouses living in Taiwan, with only some 30,000 of them having received their ROC IDs.

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