Beijing vows punishment over Taiwan’s residency rules for mainland spouses

Beijing has pledged to punish those who enforce Taiwan’s residency restrictions for mainland Chinese spouses, with Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily slamming Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te’s recent remarks about “removing impurities” on the island.

On Wednesday, Chen Binhua, a spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, described the island’s tightened residency rules as “a typical case of illegal abuse of power” and accused Taiwanese authorities of “discriminatory treatment and deliberate suppression that expose the nature of separatists”.

Chen said Taiwanese authorities were “deliberately targeting mainland spouses who have lived and settled in Taiwan for many years – some for over two decades” by demanding that they submit documents showing they had abandoned their mainland residency.

“To the ‘Taiwan independence’ enforcers and accomplices who persecute mainland spouses, we will show no leniency, pursue accountability in accordance with the law, and punish them severely without exception,” he said.

Under Lai, Taipei has tightened enforcement of residency rules for mainland-born spouses in an effort to clamp down on what the island’s leader has called “infiltration” of Taiwanese society by mainland China.

In April, Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency announced that mainland spouses who had obtained identity cards before 2004 must submit a certificate showing they had abandoned their mainland residency.