Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household residency would have their Republic of China citizenship revoked in accordance with Taiwanese law, an official with knowledge of cross-strait affairs said on Sunday.
Beijing in the past few years has been promoting permanent residency for Taiwanese living in China. To obtain it, an applicant must forfeit their Taiwan compatriot card and Taiwanese identification card, and after a period of time, they can apply for People’s Republic of China (PRC) household residency.
Chinese state media have been promoting the story of Chang Li-chi (張立齊), a professor at Huaqiao University in China’s Fujian Province who was the first to settle in the province under the scheme.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Chang is a vocal supporter of unification and has traveled often between Taiwan and China, where he earned his doctorate at Beijing University, the Taiwanese official said on condition of anonymity.
In the same vein as Justin Lin (林毅夫), who defected to China in 1979 and later became a vice president at the World Bank, Chang has let himself become a model for Chinese “united front” work, the official said.
However, the permanent residence tactic is unlikely to be effective due to China’s struggling economy and tightening control over national security, they said.
“Foreigners and Chinese alike are fleeing,” they said. “Why would the average Taiwanese want to settle there now?”
According to the guidelines posted by China’s National Immigration Administration, Taiwanese granted permanent residency must forfeit their compatriot card, Taiwanese ID and entry-exit permit to their local public security bureau within six months, the official said.
Then within the period of validity, the resident must apply for household residence and obtain a “residency card,” which is equivalent to naturalization, they said.
Doing so contravenes 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), they added.
Article 9-1 of the act states that Taiwanese cannot hold household registration or a passport issued by the PRC.
Those in contravention “shall be deprived” of their citizenship and the rights therein, as well as household registration in Taiwan.
Those who obtain permanent residency, but do not apply for household registration in China before the deadline are viewed as abandoning the process and would not be in contravention of the act, the official said.
Unlike most countries, Taiwan cannot use its country’s own name to compete in the Olympic Games or other major international sports events. Instead, it participates under the name “Chinese Taipei,” a name that causes confusion and sparks curiosity among many people, including an American director who explored the topic in his new documentary. Garret Clarke, the director of the 20-minute documentary What’s in a Name? A Chinese Taipei Story, said in an recent media interview said that he was motivated to make the documentary because he finds the name “Chinese Taipei” to be “weird.” The dispute that eventually created the name dates back
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to
The trailer of a new TV series portraying a Chinese attack on Taiwan has prompted a wave of emotional response and discussion in the nation. The teaser for Zero Day (零日攻擊), a Taiwanese production partly funded by the government and is expected to air next year, has given many viewers a sense of urgency. Its release this week coincided with annual air raid drills to prepare the nation’s 23 million residents in the event of an invasion by the Chinese military. “I burst into tears watching this. I feel heavy-hearted, and it is scary. However, this is what we need to face