離開
進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Legislator retracts Chinese relatives residency motion
Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Legislator Huang Chao-shun speaks in an interpellation session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on Oct. 1 last year. Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
By Sean Lin / Staff reporter
Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Legislator Huang Chao-shun （黃昭順） yesterday retracted a proposal to allow the parents or children of Chinese spouses to be granted permanent residency in Taiwan after it sparked a massive outcry.
The motion to amend Article 16 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area （台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例） reads: “As Chinese immigrants who arrived in the nation through marriage could become ill as they get older, or could be preoccupied by work or other tasks, there is a desperate need for them to be looked after by their parents or offspring.”
China has imposed a birth limit, which might necessitate Chinese immigrants to care for their aging or ill parents, Huang wrote in the explanation.
They might need their parents to come to Taiwan to look after their children, she wrote.
However, according to the law, the parents of Chinese spouses are only granted six-month stays, which cannot be extended, she added.
The motion recommended that permanent residency be granted for family members of Chinese spouses, as they or their families could have disabilities, or be in need of long-term care or home care services.
The motion suggested that relatives of Chinese spouses be allowed the same benefits as Taiwanese under the Long-Term Care Services Act （長期照顧服務法）.
News of the motion went viral after netizen “zac0101” on Thursday uploaded an electronic copy of it to the Professional Technology Temple, the nation’s largest online academic bulletin board system.
The post referred to reports in March 2017 of Chinese who had married military personnel continuing to occupy dormitories overseen by the Ministry of National Defense after their husbands had died.
Some of the Chinese cohabited with their ex-husbands from China in the dormitories after their Taiwanese spouse had died, local media reported.
If passed, Huang’s motion would legalize such actions, the netizen said.
The proposal triggered massive outrage online, with many people accusing Huang of treason and attempting to waste the nation’s healthcare resources.
Huang retracted the motion before a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan.
She later said on Facebook that she made the motion for humanitarian reasons, but it was blown out of proportion.
Huang said that criticism of her proposal was politically motivated, as elections are nearing, which left her with no choice but to “let go of her concern about humanitarian issues.”
The motion was cosponsored by 15 other KMT lawmakers, including Yen Kuan-hen （顏寬恆）, Alicia Wang （王育敏） and Lai Shyh-bao （賴士葆）.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
%http://www.taipeitimes.com/
