RENEW DRIVE: Draft amendments have been stalled in the Legislative Yuan for almost a year and now is the perfect time to pass them, Taiwan Democracy Watch said

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 03, 2020
By: Chung Li-hua and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Legislative Yuan has yet to take action on the Mainland Affairs Council’s proposed amendments to penalize Taiwanese who use the Chinese residency permit introduced by Beijing in 2018, Taiwan Democracy Watch said yesterday.

The residency card introduced in September 2018 allows Taiwanese, Hong Kongers and Macanese who have lived in China for more than six months and are legally working, living or studying in China certain rights and benefits enjoyed by Chinese citizens, such as state-funded education, social insurance and housing subsidies.

Taiwanese officials at the time said the cards were designed to evade provisions in 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) that ban Taiwanese holding household registrations simultaneously in Taiwan and China.

The council that same month proposed amendments to the act that would require holders of the Chinese residency cards to report to authorities, and then-premier William Lai (賴清德), who is now vice president-elect, said the amendments would be reviewed at the next legislative session.    [FULL  STORY]