I agree resident foreigners cannot send masks to their taiwanese relatives in overseas is unfair.
2 Likes
It’s a missed opportunity. Taiwan wants to create an impression of being nice to foreign countries in their time of need but needlessly pisses off the foreigners in Taiwan by making them feel discriminated against. Me, I care about Taiwan less and less over the last few years because I feel constantly discriminated against. They may be ‘minor’ things but it’s just continuous…We don’t get any subsidies from all the subsidy programs but we are asked to pay all our taxes.
7 Likes
Do the recipients have to be Taiwan citizens too? Could my 5 y.o. Taiwanese kid send masks to their UK grandparents?
No
This was discussed in another thread.
Start from here
No.
From the wording in the article, it says that Taiwanese can send to their first or second degree relatives. For mixed-blooded Taiwanese, going by definition, this can include foreign parents or grand-parents, or did they put an exception for this?
The article is not clear about the rules regarding foreigners.
The rules for foreigners have been discussed here and in the other thread.
There is no way to send medical masks to our families overseas at the moment.
1 Like
Exactly my point. It is a missed opportunity. Yes, I feel the same as you - I’m liking it less and less. There is an incongruence with the country’s policy of courting international favor and what they are actually doing.
On a tangent, I often discuss with people my opinion about one of the possible reasons Taiwan lost so many diplomatic relations with countries in Africa, especially Burkina Faso. Four years ago, I went to a cultural symposium at NCKU in Tainan and there was a student speaker from Burkina Faso who asked everyone in the audience if they knew that his country was a friend of Taiwan. Nobody knew. He even went on to say that there are many of his people here in Taiwan but there are very few Taiwanese who go to his country to visit. However, there are tons of people from China visiting, doing business, and even marrying locals. In my opinion, it’s weird that Taiwan would have diplomatic ties with a country but not foster tighter friendships beyond just economic “aid.” Anyways, that was a tangent. 
1 Like
Here is a Chinese announcement. Recipients should be taiwanese.
開放國人得寄送限量管制口罩至國外供二等親以內之具有中華民國國籍親人使用
3 Likes
It says that the recipients have to be Taiwan nationals.
Q3.收件人是否須具臺灣國籍及是否需有健保身分？
A3.收件人必須具中華民國國籍。
https://www.trade.gov.tw/Pages/Detail.aspx?nodeID=4070&pid=692057
1 Like
There are lots of missed opportunities. But this government in particular has been objectively the friendliest to foreigners by far. That’s why I and some other people have taken active approaches to opening up the country fully.
2 Likes
Thanks for the links all. I have to agree this is a ridiculous policy and only serves to alienate long term residents. It’s not like allowing this to at least ARC oweners would lead to shortages.
2 Likes
And, if you inquire for the reason, you are generally told because the program comes from taxes.
3 Likes
if they allow to foreigners send masks to non-taiwanese close relatives, they should allow it to taiwanese too. I don’t know how many taiwanese have non-taiwanese relatives overseas, but it might have some affect on masks supply and wearing rate in Taiwan.
1 Like
My wife called some government offices (not sure where).
They are discussing the possibility to send to relatives who are not Taiwanese nationals.
It was announced today that the production is up to 15 million masks per day. May be soon the rules to send medical masks will be relaxed.
But the freight is also affected by the crisis. Not sure how fast those will arrive overseas once we are allowed to send.
3 Likes
The government has allocated ten million masks already I doubt it will have any real impact whatsoever, aa far as I know this comes from our OWN allocation , it is not extra like the ten million they are donating.
1 Like
my worry is on this part.
Why are you worried ?
Mask wearing rate in Taiwan might decrease.
What I understand is we wear masks mostly not to protect ourselves from the virus, but to protect others from virus spread by us in case we are infected.