President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said he hopes Chinese students studying in Taiwan can be included in the National Health Insurance (NHI) system as soon as possible.
“[We] should act like a civilized nation,” in which Chinese students can enjoy the same treatment as Taiwanese, Ma said at a meeting at Chinese Youth International, a Taipei-based civil group devoted to the interactions of young people in Taiwan and overseas in various fields.
Whether to include Chinese students in Taiwan’s NHI system has been a controversial issue hotly debated among lawmakers, with opponents arguing that such a proposal could increase the financial burden on the system.
As a result, an amendment proposed by the Executive Yuan in 2012 to include Chinese students in the NHI system has been shelved at the legislature.
Ma said that offering Chinese students health insurance coverage would help both the students and the insurance system, as the students would likely consume few medical resources, but still have to pay an insurance fee of more than NT$600 each month.
Ma yesterday also said that he told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) when they met in November last year that the “one China, different interpretations” principle would not evolve into “two Chinas,” “one China, one Taiwan,” or “Taiwan’s independence.”
It is “one China, different interpretations,” instead of “one China, random interpretations,” Ma said, after the controversial “one China, common interpretation” (一中同表) formula was criticized in Saturday’s debate among candidates running in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairmanship by-election.
Ma also said that “one China” refers to the Republic of China under the Constitution, and the two sides maintain the “status quo” of not seeking unification or independence and not using force against each other, he added.
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