Hi Folks. I’ve been living in Taiwan for over four years now. I generally like my lifestyle here but there are some things that just about push me over the edge.
In light of the Wuhan Virus situation and the current state of the US, I want to send some paper masks back to the US. To my dismay, I read that foreigners cannot send the paper masks and only the cloth ones.
I don’t understand why in so many cases in Taiwan, long-term residents and permanent residents are treated so differently and arbitrarily than Taiwanese. Last time I read, there was the rental bike situation (and also so many issues with banking and whatnot) in Taipei and now this. But Taiwan has this new slick policy “Taiwan can help. Taiwan is helping” campaign which includes sending millions of masks overseas.
I’m not sure how many foreigners in Taiwan (not enough of us, I think, to significantly burden the supply of masks) but it seems to me if Taiwan wants to help, why doesn’t it start with helping its residents who are living right here? In my opinion, the best PR can be had by taking care of home first and foreigners would be kinda goodwill cultural ambassadors when they spread the word back in our respective countries about how great Taiwan is.
What do you think? I’m just kinda annoyed and I sometimes wonder if all hell broke loose here, for example, will Taiwan throw foreign residents here to fight for themselves or relegate us to a kind of 2nd tier status even though we pay taxes too. In the US, as far as my knowledge goes, I don’t think green card holders have these kind of issues.
UPDATE: Forgive me…I should have been clearer. I meant to write that I want to send some paper masks to my family back in the US. I am a resident here. I know the mask policy already.
I think the ban on export + buying restrictions are very important to avoid the 代購 (Daigou) buying all the masks / disinfectants and shipping them to China.
This is what happened all over the US / Australia and many other countries that are now in dire need of medical supplies.
I think the mask the government sends out goes to frontline medical staff in countries in need. That’s very different from sending mask to your family members who need them for visiting the supermarket.
The ban on the export of disposable surgical masks was imposed since Jan. 24 and until this month Taiwanese are allowed to export up to 30 masks within 2 months to their close relatives living abroad
Before the ban , there were cases of Taiwanese that purchase many masks and some even ship them to China
I remember the news of the Taiwanese celebrity that travel to Japan , bought 10,000 masks and donate them to Wuhan
I understand this. My point is to say that I feel there should be better concern for Taiwan’s foreign residents. Many of us have family, too, living abroad. And I pointed out that it is incongruent, IMO, that the Taiwan government is sending donated masks abroad when it is not even allowing foreigners in Taiwan to send a few home.
You make a very good point and others have posted about their dissatisfaction with this policy as well. After all the tax office acknowledges my parents existence already and gives me a rebate for them. We foreigners living in Taiwan long term are sick of being randomly discriminated against we just want fair treatment and also Taiwanese people with foreign citizen relatives, why cant they give them some masks ? The government is mailing ten million masks overseas and we, taxpaying residents of Taiwan, can’t mail one ?
How Taiwanese are these Taiwanese citizens people living overseas ? Are they more American or Canadian than Taiwanese ?
When was the last time they lived in Taiwan , contributed to Taiwan, paid taxes ,done their military service etc ? Also all these countries we are donating masks to, do they help Taiwan ?
Residents and foreign workers here help Taiwan immensely, Taiwan should treat us fairly. #fairdeal
Low paid foreign workers account for the vast majority of caregivers in Taiwan ! They also put their health at risk going into the hospitals.
