A total of 367,309 Chinese spouses were living in Taiwan as of the end of May, with 113,485 having applied for residency permits and 145,219 for permanent settlement, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said today in a report on cross-strait relations.
The number of cross-strait marriages declined from 2020 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, averaging just 2,000 couples per year, it said.
However, it began to rise again following the end of the pandemic, with 6,330 marriages recorded last year, it added.
Photo: Taipei Times
Moreover, there were 3,547 divorces with Chinese spouses last year, of which 283 were male spouses and 3,264 were female, Ministry of the Interior data showed.
The report also detailed exchanges between Taiwan and Hong Kong and Macau.
Last year, Taiwan received more than 1.198 million visits from Hong Kong and 111,200 from Macau, it said.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese made more than 1.203 million trips to Hong Kong and 487,000 to Macau, it added.
Last year, there were 6,278 students from Hong Kong and 1,603 from Macau enrolled in Taiwanese universities and colleges, a total of 7,881 students, the report said.
Those from Hong Kong and Macau accounted for 27.6 percent of all overseas Chinese, Hong Kong and Macau students in Taiwan, it added.
A further 2,024 Hong Kong and Macau citizens were approved for permanent settlement in Taiwan and 6,444 had their residency applications approved last year, it said.
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