The Mainland Affairs Council’s proposed measures to counter China’s new residency permit cards for Taiwanese are among the Executive Yuan’s priorities for the new legislative session, sources said yesterday.
The council is to propose draft amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) that would require holders of Chinese residency cards to report to authorities, said high-ranking officials who declined to be named, adding that the council has yet to decide whether to bar cardholders from holding public office or national security-related positions.
The draft amendments are to be proposed as a priority bill for the legislative session that begins tomorrow, alongside 41 other priority bills, the officials said.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of a reader
Premier William Lai (賴清德) is scheduled to hold a briefing with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators today to discuss bills that should be prioritized in the new session.
The act needs to be amended because China’s residency card is designed to evade provisions in the act that bans Taiwanese from simultaneously holding household registrations in Taiwan and China, officials said, adding that China treats residency cardholders as Chinese citizens, although they do not hold household registrations.
The policy is a “united front” ploy and a threat to national security, they said.
The Chinese State Council Information Office on Aug. 16 announced that, starting on Sept. 1, Taiwanese, Hong Kongers and Macanese who have lived in China for more than six months and are legally working, living or studying in the nation would be eligible to apply for a residence card.
Cardholders are granted certain rights and benefits enjoyed by Chinese citizens, such as compulsory education, social insurance and housing subsidies.
DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) had said he would propose an amendment that would cancel cardholders’ household registration in Taiwan, but officials said they would discuss the bill first with legislators.
The council currently has no plan to cancel cardholders’ household registration, but that does not mean it never will, they added.
Other national security-related priority bills for the session include amendments to the act to regulate illegal investment activities by Chinese nationals in Taiwan, and to ban high-ranking government officials and retired military officers from attending political events in China for 15 years after their retirement, as well as draft amendments to the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), they said.
Also included are the general budget plan for next year and more than 20 economy-related bills, such as draft amendments to the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法), the Urban Renewal Act (都市更新條例), the Futures Trading Act (期貨交易法) and the Trademark Act (商標法), they added.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats