An online petition asking lawmakers to suspend the review of a draft amendment that would reduce the number of years required before Chinese spouses can obtain Taiwanese citizenship garnered 10,000 endorsements just 12 hours after it was posted.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has proposed allowing Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship after four years of marriage, rather than six.
The petition to stop the proposed amendment was launched by Tu Cheng-che (杜承哲), a doctor at Cheng Ching Hospital’s thoracic surgery division.
Photo: Taipei Times
“I saw many people talk about the bill online and was furious about it. I was worried that if the bill was passed, it would exacerbate the strain on medical resources available to patients in Taiwan,” Tu said yesterday.
He and fellow medical professionals have seen many Chinese spouses bring their relatives from China to hospital emergency rooms, asking for full-body checkups, Tu said.
“They [Chinese spouses] even tell their relatives that healthcare in Taiwan is free and is easily accessible, and that healthcare providers in Taiwan would not deny a request for a full-body checkup,” Tu said, adding these are not isolated cases.
Given staffing shortages in medical institutions across the country, lawmakers should think twice before proposing an amendment that could affect the medical resources available to the public, he said.
“I will send the petition, as well as relevant appeals to lawmakers at the legislature’s Internal Administration [Committee], as well as its Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee and urge them to halt the review,” Tu said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said the draft quickly drew opposition from young people as it was introduced when China unilaterally adjusted the M503 aviation route and boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat following the deaths of two Chinese who were being chased by Taiwan’s coast guard on Feb. 14.
“Another issue is equality,” Wu said, as foreigners are required to renounce their original citizenship to acquire Taiwanese citizenship, but the Beijing government does not agree to Chinese giving up their citizenship.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS