Unmarried partners from other countries would in principle be allowed to enter Taiwan before foreign tourists, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, but added that discussions about when and how to further ease border restrictions are ongoing.
At an afternoon news conference, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman, reiterated that under current regulations, foreign spouses of Taiwanese are allowed to enter the country.
Those who can supply proof of their marriage overseas can apply to the Bureau of Consular Affairs for an entry permit, he said.
Photo: Screen grab from twitter accounts of Barbie Hsu and Koo Jun-yup.
Unmarried partners might be granted permission to enter under “humanitarian” conditions, such as visiting a sick relative, attending a funeral or other emergency, Chuang said.
Borders were opened to foreign business travelers on Monday, he said, adding that there are plans to gradually allow other visitors, including foreign tourists, subject to further developments.
It is hoped that foreign partners would be allowed entry before tourists, although interagency discussions are needed before the restriction can be lifted, Chuang said.
The topic received renewed interest after yesterday’s surprise announcement of Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu’s (徐熙媛) marriage to South Korean musician Koo Jun-yup.
Hsu and Koo — who is known by his stage name DJ Koo — announced they had married on their respective social media accounts.
Although the news took fans by surprise, as 45-year-old Hsu only announced her divorce from Chinese restaurateur Wang Xiaofei (汪小菲) on Nov. 22 last year, the couple’s whirlwind romance came after a brief relationship more than two decades earlier.
In 2010, Koo said in an interview that he and Hsu once dated for a year when he first came to Taiwan as half of the South Korean dance music duo Clon in 1998.
Due to Koo’s fame at the time, they kept their relationship a secret, often going on dates in disguise.
They separated after about a year, he added.
In a social media post, Hsu confirmed Koo’s announcement, saying: “Life is unpredictable, and I treasure my happiness at this moment. I am grateful that I now have what I have.”
Hsu’s agent also confirmed the marriage, saying that the couple registered their union in South Korea.
Hsu is perhaps best known for her breakout role as Shan Cai (杉菜) in the 2001 Taiwanese romance television series Meteor Garden (流星花園).
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS