A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker has proposed including Chinese students in Taiwan under National Health Insurance (NHI) coverage as the party strives to address basic human rights and to turn around its image of being “anti-China.”
DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) is considering proposing an amendment to the National Health Insurance Act (全民健康保險法) to enforce a mandatory coverage of Chinese students who have enrolled in universities in Taiwan and have stayed in the country for more than six months, the Chinese-language China Times reported yesterday.
Under current law, NHI coverage for foreign workers and students with residence permits only applies to those who have stayed in Taiwan for more than six months. Chinese students, who cannot obtain residence permits, are not included.
DPP Department of China Affairs Director Honigmann Hong (洪財隆) said the party “welcomes the initiative, which is proposed out of humanitarian concerns.”
The DPP will officially announce its position on the issue after a comprehensive discussion among party members and the legislative caucus in the new session, which is still more than one month away, DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said.
There is not yet party consensus on the initiative.
Hong Chih-kun (洪智坤), a DPP Central Executive Committee member, said in a post on his Facebook page that health insurance coverage was not an “inherent right,” but a paid service.
The initiative should have been discussed and deliberated as an item of cross-strait negotiation, Hong said.
What should be discussed is the integration or mutual recognition of health insurance systems across the Taiwan Strait because more than 1 million Taiwanese residing in China are also in need of medical care, he said.
Hong said Wu’s initiative “has got the point wrong” and urged Wu to reconsider the proposal.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesperson Ma Wei-kuo (馬瑋國) said the party welcomed the DPP’s proposal, as long as the DPP proposed the idea from the perspective of protecting the rights of Chinese students.
“However, if the DPP did so for political purposes, the party would only let Taiwanese people down,” she said.
Ma questioned the DPP’s stance on the policy of Chinese students in Taiwan, as the party had lashed out at President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for damaging the rights of Taiwanese students when the president instructed the Ministry of Education to relax regulations to attract more Chinese students to Taiwan. Ma said the DPP was flip-flopping on cross-strait issues.
“The DPP criticized the government’s handling of the Chinese students policy, but now it claims it wants to defend the rights of Chinese students. The DPP’s flip-flop on cross-strait policies will probably confuse its supporters,” she said.
If the DPP plans to make adjustments to its cross-strait policies, it should not only discuss the inclusion of Chinese students in the health insurance program, but develop a more comprehensive policy on Chinese students, she said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
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,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘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