Award-winning US journalist Mike Chinoy, who has covered the greater China region for decades, has received an employment Gold Card from the government, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday.
Chinoy, who has received numerous awards for journalism, including the Emmy, Peabody, and Dupont awards, was issued the card for his expertise in culture and the arts, the NIA said in a press release.
The Gold Card is offered to highly skilled foreign professionals and technicians in a number of fields as part of Taiwan’s ongoing efforts to attract overseas talent.
Photo courtesy of the National Immigration Agency via CNA
Chinoy’s work has helped give Taiwan greater global exposure, the NIA said, citing his documentary The Thaw: Taiwan and China’s Changing Relationship in 2010.
The film series on cross-strait relations looks at economics-led rapprochement between Taiwan and China and has attracted attention online, the agency said.
Chinoy spent 24 years as a foreign correspondent for CNN, including eight years as the network’s first bureau chief in Beijing, bureau chief in Hong Kong and its senior Asia correspondent, according to the University of Southern California, where he is a nonresident senior fellow at the US-China Institute.
Chinoy has reported on the most important events in Asia since the mid-1970s, including the Tiananmen Square crisis, the Hong Kong handover, the Southeast Asian tsunami, elections and political crises in Taiwan and developments in North Korea, the university said.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s from Columbia University.
The Gold Card is a combination of a work permit, residence visa and re-entry permit, which makes it easier for card holders to change jobs in Taiwan without being dependent on an employer for a work permit.
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