Foreigners who have lived in Taiwan for decades and love the country should be granted a permanent-resident visa, a lawmaker said yesterday.
At a press conference held yesterday at the legislature, KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (
"Taiwan owes them too much," Chen said.
Doris Brougham (彭蒙惠), the founder of the English magazine Studio Classroom (空中英語教室), for example, has failed in her efforts to apply for a permanent-resident visa although she has lived in Taiwan for over 50 years.
"It seems a face-losing thing for me because I am still treated as a guest despite living here for so long," the well-known English teacher said in fluent Mandarin.
Brougham, who is almost 75, came to Taiwan alone in 1926 and established the popular magazine and the radio program in the same year.
Over the past few decades, she has been awarded several important educational prizes, including the annual National Teachers' Award (
Because Brougham has to attend international conferences or return home to visit her family every year, she cannot conform to the regulations stipulated in the Immigration Law (
Chen said he would advocate amendments to the law after the new legislature convenes on Feb. 2.
In a similar case, DPP Lawmaker Tsai Hung-lang (蔡煌瑯) has repeatedly tried to help Bjarne Gislefoss (徐賓諾), former superintendent of the Puli Christian Hospital (埔里基督教醫院), and his wife Alfhild Gislefoss (紀歐惠), to obtain the permanent-resident visas.
But the help has always been in vain.
Therefore, Puli citizens organized a petition parade recently on the behalf of the Norwegians.
The parade was made up of ambulances, cars, minibuses and election campaign vans, as well as hundreds of people marching.
Liu Chien-chih (劉建志), vice superintendent of the Christian hospital, said Gislefoss, 79, and his wife, 84, tied the knot in Taiwan decades ago. In a bid to establish the hospital in Puli, they returned to their country to raise funds.
They have also spared no effort to take care of Taiwan's Aborigines, Liu said.
"They do not have children of their own, but have become the grandfather and grandmother of many thankful people," the vice-superintendent said
In addition to the many prizes and honors they have received over the years, the couple was honored by the Cabinet-level Council of Aboriginal Affairs last year for their dedication. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has also granted them an audience.
The parade may not have been in vain.
With the assistance of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and lawmakers Tsai and Apollo Chen, the president has ordered the ministries of foreign affairs and the interior to deal expeditiously with the issue, local media reported.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS