Children of ex-KMT GIs fight for legal status

They demanded that the government recognize their legitimate right to live and work in Taiwan.

The protesters’ parents settled in northern Myanmar and Thailand after retreating from adjacent Yunnan Province of southern China while former President Chiang Kai-shek led most of his troops and employees of the Kuomintang government to Taiwan in 1949.

Many of the Chinese people from Indochina found their way into China with the status of refugees.

Quite a number of the children of families staying behind came to receive education as overseas Chinese students.

Some were even sent to military schools in Taiwan before returning to Indochina to fight Communists and resist the expansion of Communism during the Cold War era.

However, some of the arrivals were found to hold fake passports and denied citizenship by the government, even though they were allowed to attend civilian schools on the island.

Described as “stateless people,” the students decided to stay and settle down here.

Without citizenship of the Republic of China and holding no identity cards, the people are unable to take up steady jobs.

They were frequently exploited by employers who paid them much less for long working hours.

Furthermore, they said, police are always after them because they are now treated as illegal immigrants.

They have organized a group to appeal to the Ministry of Interior (MOI) to give them legal resident status.

All attempts have failed so far.

MOI officials said they have full sympathy for the people, but insisted that their status cannot be changed unless the government revises the existing rules or grants amnesty for their entry into Taiwan on false travel documents.

Singing dirges and shouting slogans, the people turned to legislators for help.

They lamented that their parents had fought for the ROC government during the Civil War under the leadership of President Chiang like many new immigrants to Taiwan from China.

The new government of President Ma Ying-jeou should not continue impose discriminations against they, them said.

Their fight for legal recognition is still not over, although the KMT and the Chinese Communists have reached detente, they complained.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email