Regulations granting alien residency rights to select residents of Hong Kong and Macau were cleared yesterday by the Mainland Affairs Council during a routine council meeting reviewing cross-strait activity that took place from March through June.
The new policies, which were adjusted in accordance with the Ministry of Interior's suggested amendments, establish that the Hong Kong and Macau spouses and children of foreign white-collar professionals working in Taiwan be eligible for alien residency.
While the government's immigration policy seeks to attract foreign white-collar professionals working in the finance or high technology industries, the families of such professionals were denied access to alien resident certificates in the past. Previous policies granted spouses of foreign professionals working in Taiwan up to three months stay, with the possibility of an extension of three months. Similar policies have already been passed for spouses and children from China.
The council meeting convened yesterday brought together the heads of several relevant agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Education. MAC Vice Chairman Johnnason Liu (
The report further identified the statements issued on May 17 by China's Taiwan Affairs Office as the cornerstone of China's most current policies on Taiwan. The seven-point statement, made just days before President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was inaugurated, accused Chen of violating his "five noes" promises, of "mustering all separatist forces to drive for Taiwan's independence" and of bringing cross-strait relations "to the brink of danger." The statement said that the "one China" policy was a prerequisite for dialogue, indicating no change in Beijing's hardline stance.
According to Liu, in an overall assessment of cross-strait affairs and activity from March through June, the council reported that Chinese diplomacy has come to place increasing importance on European nations. The council's report cited Chinese President Hu Jintao's (
Liu also said yesterday that the council had reported that China was working to pull Taiwan away from its diplomatic allies. However, Liu refrained from mentioning which nations were particularly susceptible to such maneuvers, saying only that the Ministry had not named any specific countries.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift