Taiwan veterans seek young China brides

TAIPEI, Mar 29 (Reuters) Huang Chiang-nan became a soldier at 17 and fought the communists in China before the Nationalist armies were defeated and fled to Taiwan in 1949.

Fifty-seven years later, Huang is still fighting, but the adversary now is Taiwan's restrictions on travel, and the stakes are matrimonial rather than territorial.

After a decades-old ban on travel to the mainland was lifted in the late 1980s, many veteran Nationalist soldiers like Huang, most now in their 70s and 80s, visited their hometowns in China and came back with young wives dreaming of a better life on the affluent island over which Beijing claims sovereignty.

''People like us dedicated our entire lives to this country.

Now we are old, we want to have a normal family life, meaning husbands and wives living together,'' said Huang, who heads a private group helping Chinese spouses cope with life in Taiwan.

''Instead of helping mainland brides and their families, the government imposes unreasonable restrictions. Many mainland brides are treated poorly and without dignity,'' Huang said.

About 250,000 Chinese brides now live in Taiwan, more than double the 130,000 foreign nationals, most from Southeast Asia.

But Taiwan treats cross-Strait marriages with suspicion, citing political as well as social concerns.

Taiwan officials say many young Chinese women claiming to be married to Taiwan men simply disappear into the island's seedy brothels and hostess bars as soon as they enter Taiwan.

CRUELTY ''We treat people from Taiwan nicely and with respect, but look at how they treat us?,'' said Tang Shulan, a native of China's Hunan province who came to Taiwan seven years ago.

''We are descended from the same ancestors. We are all Chinese, why treat us like foreigners? Why treat people from the same family with such cruelty?'' said Tang, complaining about the lengthy waiting period to get her Taiwanese identification. She has one more year before becoming eligible for becoming a Taiwan citizen.

''Before I came, I was told Taiwan was a great place and I would live a good life. If I had known, I would not have come no matter how poor I was at home,'' said Tang, whose husband is 82.

Although Taiwan allowed Chinese nationals married to Taiwanese to apply for residency in 1992, they must wait an average eight years or longer, compared with five years for other foreign nationals.

In the first two years, they are not allowed to work and have to leave Taiwan every six months.

The government stands by its policy, saying tough rules are necessary to stem the huge flow of immigrants from its giant neighbour and political foe, which has threatened to use force if necessary to bring the self-ruled island under its control.

Critics say the crackdown on fake marriages came at the expense of the rights of legitimate Chinese brides.

''We face a unique situation because of the complicated nature of cross-Strait relations. The government must serve as a gatekeeper,'' Steve Wu, deputy director of the Bureau of Immigration, told Reuters.

''We cannot ban cross-Strait marriages, but we will not encourage them,'' Wu said.

TOUGH INTERVIEWS Concerned about fake marriages, Taiwan started interviewing Chinese spouses seeking residency on the island from September 2003 and taking their fingerprints. People of other nationalities are not subject to these rules.

''The interview was very unpleasant. They asked all sorts of questions, private questions,'' Yuan Huanzhen, a 43-year-old textile factory worker married to a man twice her age whom she had met only once.

''They made me so nervous and I felt as if I had committed some serious crime,'' said Yuan, who said she had travelled hundreds of miles to Taiwan to escape poverty in China.

Yuan and her 86-year-old husband live in a tiny room leased from the city government for 0 a month and spend most of their days reading newspapers on a park bench. Their only source of income is his military pension.

Since the interview scheme was introduced, the number of cross-Strait marriages has halved from 38,000 in 2003 to 19,000 last year, according to data provided by the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation that handles bilateral exchanges.

Of 52,000 Chinese spouses interviewed by Taiwan customs so far, 8,000 failed the test and were sent back.

Once allowed to settle, many Chinese spouses -- whose accents are the only thing which set them apart from locals -- have a hard time fitting in.

Yuan recalled she was once scolded by a cab driver who criticised Chinese leaders for wanting to attack the island.

''I don't know if you call it discrimination, but I am always looked down on here,'' she said.

REUTERS PV RAI0905