When Mr. Liao, a driver for a shipping company in Kaohsiung, brought his wife from Heilongjiang to Taiwan, the newly married couple were soon to discover that things were not quite as they had imagined them.
Unable to work because of the laws governing mainland spouses, his wife discovered that she had to stay at home with her mother-in-law. What's more, her husband, who in China it seemed was on top of the world, back in Taiwan, was working as a driver, pulling long hours with little time to spend with his wife.
Before long his wife decided she wanted out.
Meanwhile, for J.K. Chiang, the vice general manager of Pai Chen Brewery and Foods Co, Ltd., his cross-strait marriage couldn't be better. Chiang met his wife, whose family runs golf tours in Zhuhai, last year.
"The way she talked and thought was really not that different at all," Chiang said.
For good or for bad, cross-strait marriages have been steadily rising since the government made them legal in 1993. In fact, cross-strait officials estimate the figures are rising by 10,000 a year, and according to records in China, shared with Taiwan officials, 73,000 Taiwanese have tied the cross-strait knot.
For government officials here in Taiwan, the issue is a thorny one. Not all the marriages are born out of love. During the first half of this year some 300 mainland men came to Taiwan, marrying women that were 30-40 years older than they were. According to one Mainland Affairs Council official, the elderly have long been easy prey for "snake-heads" or illegal immigration groups.
"For many it's the one way to get to Taiwan," the official said.
But then, ever since the government legitimized cross-strait marriages, cross-strait tensions and the fear of a flood of mainland immigrants have made it difficult to formulate policies that please everybody.
Since the government opened up residence for cross-strait marriages in 1993, its policies have been sharply debated.
And caught in the middle are the couples who tie the knot. Not only do they have to deal with the challenges of a marriage in which both parties have widely differing cultural backgrounds but they also have to co-exist according to rules that have been formulated more in consideration of the political environment across the strait than in the best interests of those on the firing line.
Government bodies like the MAC maintain that policy making has always attempted to balance security and "humanitarian concerns."
But this balance, critics say, leaves many couples out on a limb.
Most mainland spouses have to pass through a grueling process before they can ever share the rights granted to other residents from abroad. In theory, couples who have been married for two years or have a child can register for residence in Taiwan. But at present 36,000 spouses who have met this requirement are still waiting their turn to receive residency rights. Since 1993 only 7,900 spouses have been granted residence, a wait which on average takes 10 years.
And during the long wait, mainland spouses are forced to travel back to China every six months and cannot work legally or enjoy the benefits of the National Health Insurance plan. Small surprise that many are driven to divorce.
In a draft law now working its way through the Legislative Yuan, the government is seeking to open a portion of the job market to cross-strait spouses, expand the annual quota of residency permits from 1,800 to 3,600, allow spouses without residency rights to stay for a year and give them care under the National Health Insurance program.
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