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).
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift