The Mainland Affairs Council’s proposed measures to counter China’s new residency permit cards for Taiwanese are among the Executive Yuan’s priorities for the new legislative session, sources said yesterday.
The council is to propose draft amendments to 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) that would require holders of Chinese residency cards to report to authorities, said high-ranking officials who declined to be named, adding that the council has yet to decide whether to bar cardholders from holding public office or national security-related positions.
The draft amendments are to be proposed as a priority bill for the legislative session that begins tomorrow, alongside 41 other priority bills, the officials said.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of a reader
Premier William Lai (賴清德) is scheduled to hold a briefing with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators today to discuss bills that should be prioritized in the new session.
The act needs to be amended because China’s residency card is designed to evade provisions in the act that bans Taiwanese from simultaneously holding household registrations in Taiwan and China, officials said, adding that China treats residency cardholders as Chinese citizens, although they do not hold household registrations.
The policy is a “united front” ploy and a threat to national security, they said.
The Chinese State Council Information Office on Aug. 16 announced that, starting on Sept. 1, Taiwanese, Hong Kongers and Macanese who have lived in China for more than six months and are legally working, living or studying in the nation would be eligible to apply for a residence card.
Cardholders are granted certain rights and benefits enjoyed by Chinese citizens, such as compulsory education, social insurance and housing subsidies.
DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) had said he would propose an amendment that would cancel cardholders’ household registration in Taiwan, but officials said they would discuss the bill first with legislators.
The council currently has no plan to cancel cardholders’ household registration, but that does not mean it never will, they added.
Other national security-related priority bills for the session include amendments to the act to regulate illegal investment activities by Chinese nationals in Taiwan, and to ban high-ranking government officials and retired military officers from attending political events in China for 15 years after their retirement, as well as draft amendments to the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), they said.
Also included are the general budget plan for next year and more than 20 economy-related bills, such as draft amendments to the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法), the Urban Renewal Act (都市更新條例), the Futures Trading Act (期貨交易法) and the Trademark Act (商標法), they added.
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