Taipei Times
Date: Jun 28, 2016
By: Hsiao Ting-fang and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The legislature’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday passed a review of a proposed
Chinese spouses protest outside the legislature in Taipei yesterday, calling on legislators to reduce the length of residency required before Chinese spouses are able to obtain Republic of China citizenship and a national identity card. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
amendment to Article 17 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) to require Chinese spouses to pass civic tests as a condition for obtaining citizenship.
The proposed amendment would require the Ministry of the Interior to set the criteria for the tests, while the length of the currently stipulated residency requirements for naturalizing Chinese spouses would remain unaltered on a provisional basis, but could be subject to change in future legislative negotiations.
The committee on June 13 passed the amendment in committee review, but the deal collapsed when a procedural flaw led to mutual recriminations, with pan-blue and pan-green caucuses mobilizing their lawmakers to prepare for a contentious vote.
However, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) intervened to calm tensions, brokering a deal to revisit the bill yesterday and avert a confrontation on the legislative floor. [FULL STORY]
