Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: tingyaoh/WikiCommons/CC0
WITH THE LAI administration moving to crack down on the number of Taiwanese who also hold Chinese national IDs–something forbidden by ROC law and requiring such individuals to give up their Taiwanese nationality or forfeit their Chinese national ID–this has also applied to Chinese spouses of Taiwanese. Such individuals are required to give up their Chinese household registration if they wish to maintain their “settlement residency” in Taiwan.
The Lai administration notified affected individuals that they needed to give up their Chinese household registration within three months. According to the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), while this affects 140,000 Chinese spouses, all but 12,000 had provided the required documentation. Such laws had been on the books since 2004, but had not been widely enforced until more recently.
The MAC also stated that it would allow for affidavits and other exceptions for circumstances such as individuals being too old or sick to travel, having no ability to give up their household registration due to their house being demolished, and individuals who may have been born in China but never had any household registration. Individuals who have not traveled to China since January 1, 2015, are also eligible for such exceptions.
Later on, the MAC stated that it had received 1,200 affidavits from Chinese spouses of Taiwanese, 900 of which were valid. The MAC has preferred to handle such cases on a case-by-case basis, as the National Immigration Agency also does regarding asylum cases.
It is important to allow for affidavits for Chinese spouses, because of the possibility that some individuals are unable to travel due to the political risk.
One prominent case in point is that of the publisher, Fucha, who was the editor-in-chief of Gusa Publishing. Fucha is the pen name of Li Yanhe.
While originally a Chinese national from Liaoning, Li acquired Taiwanese nationality through marriage to a Taiwanese person. Li had been residing in Taiwan since 2009. Namely, Gusa Publishing frequently released books critical of the Chinese government. This includes He Qingilian’s Red Infiltration: The Reality of China’s Global Media Expansion and translations, as in the Chinese language edition of Louisa Lim’s People’s Republic of Amnesia.
Nevertheless, Fucha has been imprisoned by China for several years. Fucha was detained during a trip to China in March 2023, which was for the purpose of giving up his Chinese household registration. After being held for over two years without a trial, it emerged earlier this year that he had been secretly tried by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. The verdict is expected to be a heavy one, but it has not been announced, with Fucha facing charges of “inciting secession”.
With efforts by the Lai administration to enforce regulations more strictly on Chinese spouses of Taiwanese, the KMT has positioned itself as the defender of the interests of Chinese spouses. The KMT has traditionally done so, counting on Chinese spouses of Taiwanese to act as a voter bloc that would support it.
That being said, there have also been times in which the KMT attacked Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who it perceived as politically aligned with the DPP.
In 2024, KMT legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin lashed out at YouTuber “Anxious Housewife Lia”, attacking Lia as a supporter of the DPP. Lia was originally a Chinese national who obtained ROC citizenship through marriage to a Taiwanese person.
In a statement responding to Hsu’s comments, Lia emphasized that she had never expressed support for the DPP, Lia brought up that she has an elderly mother who still lives in China, and that being labeled as a supporter of the DPP could potentially deprive Lia of the opportunity to visit her mother in her twilight years. In the statement, Lia also emphasized that attending election-watching events was merely by virtue of being an Internet personality, rather than on the basis of support for one party or another.
There were past incidents in which Lia potentially faced retaliation during trips to China. At one point in late 2022, Lia experienced unexpected delays in receiving a travel permit required from China to return to Taiwan, after returning to her hometown of Dalian to invalidate her household registration. Given the possibility of being unable to return to Taiwan, Lia recorded a video clip about her dilemma. The MAC, at the time, stated that it would be in contact with relevant authorities to ensure that Lia would be able to safely return.
Still, in recent times, with the Lai administration stepping up the securitization of Taiwanese society, the issue of how long Hongkongers are required to stay in Taiwan to acquire residency has become yoked to the issue of Chinese spouses of Taiwanese. Proposals by 18 DPP legislators to increase the period that Hongkongers need to reside in Taiwan to acquire residency seem to be based on the residency period for Chinese spouses in Taiwan. It is to be seen how the entanglement of the two issues impacts Taiwanese immigration policy for individuals from China, Hong Kong, and Macau.