Mainland-Taiwan parents kneel and call for cancellation of the entry ban (photo: Courtesy of mainland-Taiwan parents self-help organization)

The Taiwan regional authority's move to bar entry for children of cross-Taiwan Straits couples amid the COVID-19 pandemic is causing anger among the public due to its obvious politicization of the virus and discrimination against mainland residents. 

Many mainland-Taiwan families who have been separated from their loved ones across the Straits have condemned the separatist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority for utilizing these children as a tool for political purposes, urging it to let them return to the island and reunite with their parents soon.

Ye, a mother who has been separated from her son since the virus outbreak, has made lots of petitions to Taiwan authorities in these months. She and some other parents even knelt at the gate of the local health department in Taiwan and called for cancellation of the entry ban, only to get no response.

"I never thought there would be a day I would kneel down to others only for family reunion," Ye told the Global Times. Months of separation have made this brokenhearted mother extremely worried and sleepless, having to take drugs for treating anxiety disorders. "Being ripped apart from my child is a big pain to me," she said.

Taiwan has opened its door to resident-certificate holders from many countries and regions - including the US - yet it still rejects the children of Taiwan residents and their mainland spouses, although these children also have Taiwan resident certificates and have been living on the island for a long time.

Taiwan's entry ban came out in late January before the Ye family was about to head back for Taiwan after spending the Chinese New Year (CNY) vacation in Ye's hometown Fujian Province in the mainland. Ye and her husband had to go back to the island for work, leaving their son alone in Fujian with no friends and few relatives.

Ye criticized the ban as inhumane and merciless. "Doesn't the DPP have family or kids?" she asked. "It has no sympathy."

Untenable excuse



Including Ye's son, there are more than 400 children of mainland-Taiwan couples left in the mainland because of the unfair entry ban, according to the Taiwan New Inhabitants Development Association.

The excuse of "epidemic control" that the DPP authority uses to bar these kids is totally untenable, said Xu Chunying, the association's director. 

"It's quite unfair that the DPP allows people from areas severely affected by the virus to come, while it locks out children returning from the mainland where the epidemic situation has largely contained," Xu told the Global Times.

The DPP is utilizing the pandemic to serve its "independence" agenda, said mainland observers. By stigmatizing COVID-19 as a "Wuhan virus" and preventing children of mainland-Taiwan couples from entering, it attempts to decouple and escalate "confrontation" with the mainland, said Ni Yongjie, deputy director of the Shanghai Institute of Taiwan Studies.

"Meanwhile, it shamelessly tries every possible way to please some foreign forces, easing entry restrictions even on those from high-risk areas," Ni told the Global Times.

Since March, Xu's association and some other nongovernment groups have been helping these families reach local officials and express their appeals. To their disappointment, the Taiwan authority has seldom responded to their requests but kept talking about the mainland's so-called "lack of transparency" in the fight against COVID-19, which is no more than a groundless smear, said some of the families reached by the Global Times.

Taiwan native Liu, who had been in Shanghai with his wife and 3-year-old child before coming back to the island alone in early July, has repeatedly sent petitions to various departments of the local government. "But they just pass the buck and have never replied," he said.

Contrary to the Taiwan authority's smear, Liu said he felt the mainland has done a good job in controlling the epidemic. "During my stay in Shanghai, I personally experienced the efforts that the local government made in fighting the virus," he told the Global Times.

The DPP, by blaming the mainland for the pandemic and slandering the 400 kids as virus spreaders, is attempting to stir up "anti-mainland sentiment" among local residents, Liu said. If it is really for the sake of epidemic control, it can at least ask the 400 children in the mainland to take a test and have a 14-day quarantine when entering the island - just as people coming from other places do - rather than simply shutting them out, he added.

Place full of lies



There had been nearly 400,000 mainland-Taiwan couples in total by 2019, estimated a Taiwan-based cross-Straits marriage coordination and promotion association.

After the travel ban caused rage across the island, the Taiwan authorities started allowing children of mainland-Taiwan couples aged under 2 to enter from July 16, Taiwan-based media reported.

But this "concession" is perfunctory and insincere, Xu said, adding that there may be only 10 or fewer children of that age among the over 400. "What's more, children aged above 2 also need parents' care, and their rights should be guaranteed as well," she told the Global Times.

It is ironic that the DPP, which keeps boasting about their "humanity" and "care" amid the pandemic, cold-bloodedly turned a blind eye to the pain of family separation and disregarded the basic human rights of the involved children, such as their right to education, Xu said.

An'an (pseudonym), the child of a mainland-Taiwan couple and freshman of a Taiwan-based university, has missed a whole semester's offline courses because of the entry ban. Staying in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, he has to take temporary online courses with no textbooks and is unable to interact with his teachers.

"He can't learn well in that way," said An'an's father surnamed Chang, who has had to quit his job in Taiwan to stay with An'an in Heilongjiang amid the pandemic, with his wife going back to the island alone.

Feeling antipathy against the pitiless Taiwan authority, An'an is now unwilling to go back to the island, Chang told the Global Times. He recalled something that An'an wrote in his recent homework, saying that it doesn't matter to him whether or not he can go back to Taiwan as it is a place full of lies.


Newspaper headline: Longing for reunion