To assuage fears that Chinese students could impact on the labor market, Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) Chairwoman Wang Ju-hsuan (王如玄) gave assurances yesterday that Chinese would not be allowed to work in Taiwan.
“I will not allow Chinese people to work in Taiwan,” Wang told legislators, who demanded in a legislative committee session that she give a definitive response on whether Chinese students would be eligible to work in the country after completing their studies in Taiwan.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) asked Wang if the CLA would bar Chinese students from working in Taiwan while they are in school or after they graduate, saying that this could have a negative impact on the deteriorating employment outlook for Taiwanese college graduates.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator William Lai (賴清德) also expressed concern that after it opens local universities to Chinese students, the government would eventually allow Chinese students to stay and work in the country.
DPP Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) voiced doubts that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would be able to keep his campaign promise to lower the unemployment rate to less than 3 percent during his four-year term if Chinese students were allowed to work in Taiwan.
In response, Wang said the council would give top priority to protecting employment opportunities for Taiwanese.
Wang initially said that Chinese nationals should be subject to the same rules as other foreigners, who are required to meet very strict criteria to work in Taiwan. She also said that as the nation’s economic development was difficult to forecast, it would leave open the possibility of opening the employment market to Chinese workers at some point in the future.
But when pressed by KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) to give a clear answer, Wang said she would not allow Chinese nationals to work in Taiwan.
Following Ma’s announcement on Monday that the government would begin to recognize diplomas issued by schools in China and allow Chinese students to attend universities in Taiwan starting next year, some legislators expressed fears that Chinese students could be allowed to work in Taiwan and thus add pressure to the employment market.
During his presidential campaign, Ma promised that he would not allow Chinese to work in Taiwan.
The Mainland Affairs Council said the pertinent articles in the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) would have to be amended and sent to the Legislative Yuan for review and approval before Chinese students can be admitted to Taiwan universities.
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