Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Shyu Jong-shyoung (徐中雄) and several activists yesterday urged the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the legislature to approve a proposed amendment that would relax rules on Chinese spouses bringing children from previous marriages to live with them in Taiwan.
Shyu told a press conference that he had proposed an amendment to the Act Governing the Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) that would allow the children of Chinese spouses under the age of 20 to seek Taiwanese residency as a dependent.
Under current regulations, only children under the age of 12 can apply for residency as a dependent.
Shyu said his proposal would also allow Chinese spouses and their Taiwanese husband or wife to adopt the Chinese spouses’ children in China whether or not they have children in Taiwan.
Current laws only allow couples to adopt a spouse’s children in China if they do not have any children of their own in Taiwan.
Shyu said the current regulations were a violation of the human rights of Chinese spouses.
A Chinese spouse identified as Hsiao-wen (小文) said that although she had worked hard to look after her family in Taiwan, her family would never be complete without her daughter in China.
Hsiao-wen said her husband had been unable to adopt her 10-year-old daughter in China because they now have a child in Taiwan.
“I married my husband in Taiwan five years ago, but I have been separated from my child [in China] because of my remarriage,” she said.
Wang Chuan-ping (王娟萍), chairwoman of the New Immigrants Labor Rights Association, urged the government to protect the right of Chinese spouses to be with their children.
Shyu said he would forcibly push through his proposed amendment if the MAC could not propose other measures to guarantee the rights of Chinese spouses.
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
A Taiwanese software developer has created a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model to help people use AI without exposing sensitive data, project head Huang Chung-hsiao (黃崇校) said yesterday. Huang, a 55-year-old coder leading a US-based team, said that concerns over data privacy and security in popular generative AIs such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek motivated him to develop a personal AI assistant named “Mei.” One of the biggest security flaws with cloud-based algorithms is that users are required to hand over personal information to access the service, giving developers the opportunity to mine user data, he said. For this reason, many government agencies and
The National Fire Agency on Thursday said a series of drills simulating a magnitude 8.5 earthquake would be held in September to enhance the government’s emergency response capabilities. Since earthquakes cannot be predicted, only by continuously promoting disaster prevention measures could Taiwan enhance its resilience to earthquakes, agency Director-General Hsiao Huan-chang (蕭煥章) said in a news release. The exercises would be held to mark annual National Disaster Prevention Day on Sept. 21, the aim of which is to test Taiwan’s preparedness and improve its earthquake resilience in case of a major temblor, Hsiao said. As part of those drills, an earthquake alert would
STRICTER ENFORCEMENT: Taipei authorities warned against drunk cycling after a sharp rise in riding under the influence, urging greater public awareness of its illegality Taipei authorities have issued a public warning urging people not to ride bicycles after consuming alcohol, following a sharp rise in riding under the influence (DUI) cases involving bicycles. Five hundred and seven people were charged with DUI last year while riding YouBikes, personal bicycles, or other self-propelled two-wheelers — a fourfold increase from the previous year, data released by the Taipei Police Department’s Traffic Division showed. Of these, 33 cases were considered severe enough to be prosecuted under “offenses against public safety,” the data showed. Under the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例), bicycles — including YouBikes and other
RSS