R.O.C. Citizens with P.R.C. Residency Won't Be Targeted: MAC|中國居住證爭議陸委會:沒有除籍問題

發布時間：2018/9/26 16:26 更新時間：2018/9/26 17:34

M. Chuang

Many Taiwanese businesspersons returned to Taiwan for a conference in Hsinchu just after the Mid-Autumn Festival, where the topic of Taiwanese businesspersons applying for residency in China became the focus. The Mainland Affairs Council says it will work even harder to safeguard against Beijing's political goals, but reassures that applying for residency in China will not create any Taiwanese citizenship issues.

A conference for Taiwanese businesspersons in China was recently held in Hsinchu. One of the main focuses of the conference was R.O.C. citizens applying for residency in China. The Mainland Affairs Council provided clarification on this front during the event.

At present, they don't need to worry about their citizenship being revoked. But back to what I was saying earlier, will Beijing really hold true to its word and -- is this really nothing more than a measure of convenience? We have to keep a close watch on this. Once again, we reiterate that we will be lenient towards Taiwanese businesspersons who apply for P.R.C. residency for convenience purposes.

The council maintains that Taiwanese businesspersons are not the target of its "preventive" measures. The Straits Exchange Foundation, meanwhile, raised the "three no's" of the Taiwanese business community.

The first "no" is no hasty implementation. The second is no stigmatization. R.O.C. citizens who are working or studying in China keep telling me their heart is with Taiwan, their roots are in Taiwan, their home is in Taiwan and they are Taiwanese. The third is not targeting the wrong people.

Conference attendees declared their allegiance to Taiwan. The foundation also said R.O.C. citizens who apply for residency in China would not be subject to unequal treatment. Vice President Chen Chien-jen, who also attended, told everyone they should be focusing less on the residency issue and more on the after-effects of the U.S.-China trade war.

Due to the huge trade volume and close economic ties between the U.S., China and Taiwan, the escalation of the trade war between the U.S. and China means an unavoidable impact of some scale on the domestic economy.

Do residency cards simply grant Taiwanese businesspersons free entry into China, nothing more, nothing less, or are they part of a greater political plan hatched by China? Only time will tell.