A fair foreign spouse law
After reading the story about foreign spouses and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) (“MAC promises spouse rule overhaul,” July 17, page 4), I felt compelled to respond. At first one would think this reform would be progressive. In reality, however, as a “foreign spouse,” I am appalled with these new developments and this one-sided affair.
The MAC, under the pro-China administration of autocrat President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), has flagrantly missed the boat in its attempt to reform the “foreign spouse” law. Reform is needed across the board.
I anticipate it to be a carte blanche affair for Chinese spouses. Ma prefers Chinese national spouses and prioritizes the rights of Taiwanese married to them over the rights of, for example, Taiwanese married to Japanese or Canadians.
I realize that the law is xenophobic with respect to Chinese spouses in that they have to wait longer for an ID card, but at least they can get one. Chinese make up just one part of the many foreigners married to Taiwanese and they are not subject to the obstacle of having to renounce their citizenship — which is what non-Chinese foreign spouses are required to do before becoming a Taiwanese national.
There is a genuine misconception in Taiwan that Chinese spouses face a more difficult naturalization process.
The wait time is, admittedly, shorter for non-Chinese foreign spouses, but few of them will agree to the difficult requirements they must fill.
The legislation on foreign spouses discriminates against anyone who is not Chinese. Taiwan is not part of China and human rights there should be universal for all, including Taiwanese married to non-Chinese foreigners. The government should seek to protect the rights of all Taiwanese married to foreign spouses, not just those married to Chinese.
Previous administrations haven’t addressed this issue properly either, but I believe Ma will miss this tremendous opportunity to amend the law because of his focus on China. He will continue the government’s treatment of non-Chinese foreign spouses as a disease. Nobody wants to go near them. Times have changed and so should government policy. It is ironic that globally Taiwan also suffers this same discriminatory treatment.
Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) promoted the idea that the government should treat all foreign spouses as assets and not liabilities. That would be refreshing.
It is my opinion that non-Chinese foreign spouses are forced to live outside of Taiwan with their Taiwanese spouses because they are denied the rights of a citizen if they live in Taiwan. This has a serious impact on Taiwan’s economic, social and political welfare, as the country loses a resource pool by allowing the same old anti-Western attitude to continue to guide government policy. But now the stakes are higher, with Ma drooling and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ready to pounce at the opportunity of unification. But unification would now be on China’s terms, not Taiwan’s.
Foreign spouses can empower Taiwan and improve its international profile, leading to eventual acceptance at the UN, but it seems that the KMT is only interested in the unification — and union by marriage — of Chinese and Taiwanese.
Christian Bell
Ontario, Canada
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