New association offers counseling, works with government agencies
The country's first organization dedicated to providing counseling services related to marital matters for cross-Straits couples was set up in Beijing on Tuesday.
More than 320,000 residents from the mainland have tied the knot with people from Taiwan since 1987, when the two sides resumed people-to-people communications, Civil Affairs Minister Li Liguo said at the launching ceremony.
He said cross-Straits marriages are becoming more frequent, with 10,000 to 20,000 registrations every year.
The organization, Cross-Straits Marriage and Family Association, was set up thanks to support from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.
Dou Yupei, vice-minister of civil affairs and head of the association, said cross-Straits couples have more questions about marital life, including marriage registration, employment, social insurance, education, residency permits and adoption, following the development of cross-Straits marriage over the past two decades.
The association will open a hotline to provide marriage counseling services for mainlanders who have married or are planning to marry residents from Taiwan, Dou said.
It will also collect requests and complaints from these couples and then work with government departments to solve their problems, he said.
In 2011, Vivian Lee of Taiwan, a student in a PhD program at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, married her boyfriend, who is originally from Guangzhou and works in Beijing.
"We had to register our marriage twice as the mainland and Taiwan did not recognize each other’s registration, and the procedures were complicated and it took us a year to prepare all documents," the 39-year-old said.
"As a spouse of a resident from the mainland, I hope the government will grant five-year multiple-entry travel permits so I won’t need to renew my permit too often," she said.
