Resident-Card “Open Offensive” vs. Tsai Gov’t’s Conspiracy Charges

  Resident-Card “Open Offensive” vs. Tsai Gov’t’s Conspiracy Charges

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

September 6, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

The resident card for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents which the Mainland has recently introduced officially opened for applications on September 1^st; Taiwan’s long-term residents on the Mainland have begun to apply. Despite the fact that the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) issued warnings several times to remind people to stop, look, and listen before applying, yet it could not forestall people’s enthusiasm for applying.

The reason is very simple: the Mainland in recent years has endlessly enhanced the strength of its preferential policies for Taiwan, among which the resident card is an important link. Moreover, it is a measure for convenience to meet the actual needs of the daily life of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents on the Mainland after having consulted many times the views of Taiwan residents. In other words, after having obtained resident cards, Taiwan residents may find it much more convenient in their life and work on the Mainland; in transportation, travel, opening bank accounts, and applying for licenses, they will be granted convenient and speedy service equal to other Mainland residents. In addition, they can also enjoy social benefits no less than Mainland residents, so why not?

The response of the MAC, however, was disappointing; the "explanatory note" of its release was filled with thinking of hostility, giving negative interpretations to even some of the Mainland's procedural and technical approaches, as if it had returned to the past era of "no haste, be patient."

The MAC also accused the Mainland of "a unilateral approach in pushing for cross-Strait economic, social, and political integration and development.” Nevertheless, this was originally the Mainland’s open offensive. The Mainland precisely wanted, through endlessly releasing preferential policies for Taiwan, to let Taiwan residents feel the Mainland’s goodwill, realizing the benefits of cross-Strait integration and encouraging Taiwan residents to "vote with their feet," eventually setting up a cross-Strait community of shared destiny, allowing a meeting of minds of the people across the Strait.

The greatest threat emanating from the MAC is no more than the taxation issue; by quoting the Mainland’s newly revised “Personal Income Tax Act,” it claims that those who have lived on the Mainland for more than 183 days will be deemed as tax-paying residents, whether inside or outside of the Mainland. However, this is another non-issue mixed up with the resident card. Because Taiwan residents living on the Mainland, even if they do not apply for resident cards, based on the definition of the Mainland’s tax law, will also equally belong to the category of tax-paying residents. This is why the spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office under the State Council said that the two had no corresponding relations.

Rather than using a magnifying glass to scrutinize the Mainland's policies, while popping up some inconsequential countermeasures, it would be better for the MAC to do more self-reflecting on its own policies, pondering how to convince people on Taiwan to believe that the government is truly thinking in behalf of the people and is worthy of trust. We also recommend that the Mainland government respond to the Taiwan people’s concerns about the taxation issue, adopting measures to allow Taiwan people to obtain a certain degree of exemption, or making more reasonable and legitimate arrangements for concrete items of taxes, so as not to offset the attractiveness of the Mainland’s preferential policies for Taiwan.

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