Around 10,000 Chinese spouses stand to lose their Taiwanese residency status for failure to provide proof that they have renounced their Chinese household registration, according to the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) this Monday.
MAC Chairperson Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) says the government has issued around 140,000 identity cards to Chinese spouses, but has only received proof that Chinese household registration has been renounced from 130,000 of them. This leaves around 10,000 Chinese spouses who stand to lose their Taiwanese residency status should they fail to submit proof.
Chiu reminds the Chinese spouses that the government will not deliberately cancel their Taiwanese residency status if they are actively cooperating, and that authorities are available to provide assistance. At the same time, he warns that those who plan on waiting it out and seeing if the Taiwanese government will actually do anything about it should not expect leniency. Chiu says that as long as spouses in question are willing to abide by Taiwanese law and try to renounce their Chinese household registration, the authorities will do what they can to assist.