Students from Taiwan praise life on mainland

Spouses have concerns about future

In Taiwan, those who are perhaps most worried about post-May 20 relations are mainland spouses married to partners from Taiwan.

According to the island's interior ministry, more than 400,000 Chinese mainland spouses live in Taiwan and constitute two-thirds of non-Taiwan spouses.

Tian Chunmiao, head of the Chinese Spouses Association in Taiwan, told The China Post that many mainland spouses in Taiwan have concerns and fears about future cross-Straits ties.

Tian, 36, who married a Taiwan man and came to the island from Hubei province in 2003, is a sales manager in Taichung, central Taiwan, and is secretary-general of the association.

Another mainland spouse, Zhan Xiuying, who is from Yunnan province and is head of the Kaohsiung New Citizen Development Association, shared the same concerns.

During an interview in February, Zhan said the KMT has long had a stable communication network with the mainland. Tsai Ing-wen's Democratic Progressive Party, however, does not share such common ground for cross-Straits exchanges.

That is why many Chinese mainland spouses, like Zhan, fear that after the DPP comes to power, relations will go backward and the rights of mainland Chinese spouses will be sacrificed.

"We are not Taiwan's enemies, and the ruling administration should not politicize our rights," she noted.

"We are all living on Taiwan soil and we are part of Taiwan," she said, adding that she hopes the new DPP administration can put more emphasis on the rights of mainland spouses.