The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will stop authenticating marriage certificates between Taiwanese and Cambodian citizens next month because the Cambodian government considers Taiwanese to be citizens of the People's Republic of China.
The ministry yesterday urged Taiwanese married to Cambodian to register for interviews with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Ho Chi Minh City before July 7 in order to obtain a marriage certificate authenticated by the government.
However, this only applies to couples who submitted applications for interviews before Jan. 26 because the ministry stopped accepting such applications on Jan. 23.
After July 7, the government will no longer provide marriage authentication services for Taiwanese-Cambodian couples, the ministry said in a press statement yesterday.
Cambodian spouses can't apply for resident permits in Taiwan without such certificates.
A ministry official said the government had decided to suspend document authentication services for Cambodians because there had been an upsurge in fake documents.
The ministry had asked Cambodia to tackle the problem but Phnom Penh responded by demanding that Taiwanese seeking certificates or services present identity documents provided by the Chinese embassy in Cambodia.
"The Cambodian government's measure has seriously undermined Taiwan's national dignity," the official said.
The new rules would also serve as a warning to Taiwanese about the risks involved in marrying Cambodians, the official said.
Cambodia is a staunch ally of China. Taiwan has no diplomatic representation in the country and all consular services related to Cambodia are handled by Taiwan's representative offices in Vietnam.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS