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[Aristotle]

Advisory Warning for Taiwan
Non-Republic of China nationals on Taiwan or the occupied islands are strongly advised to avoid opening or using banks on, or associated with Taiwan.

The following warning/advisory specifically applies to banking for all non-Republic of China nationals living, working or traveling on Taiwan or the occupied territories of the Republic of China.

The occupational authority of the Republic of China has, as part of an ongoing effort to promote greater racial superiority of Republic of China nationals, decreed that non-ROC nationals with banking or financial accounts in banks or financial institutions in ROC territory, be denied access to any funds or monies locally or abroad held by banks in
the territory of the Republic of China, if they do not poses a residency document (ARC) or ROC passports issued by that authority.

Non-ROC nationals who fail to withdraw monies or assets in a specified time may forfeit those accounts or assets to confiscation by the the occupational authorities without notification or re-numeration of non ROC nationals.

Further more, that same occupational government has initiated policies to arbitrarily and through extra judicial means, revoke Alien Resident Certificates (ARC) and deport from the territory any foreign national without right of appeal or judicial oversight thus, depriving minorities on Taiwan of their basic human rights and effectively stealing any assets non ROC nationals may have in local banks.

This warning/advisory specifically applies to immigrants, migrants, foreign spouses, laborers, teachers, domestic helpers, foreign engineers, business executives and dependents numbering over 500,000 to 1,00,000 people or approximately 2% to 5% of the population on Taiwan who do not posses Republic of China passports or ROC national identification cards.

This advisory has been issued by SSETT the defacto foreign teachers union and advocacy group on Taiwan.

[Solar Strength]

My girlfriend and I were in Thailand and went to use the ATM. Our cards didn't work (China Trust). We were like, WTF??!

Well, it turns out that the China Trust took away our privileges to use our cards in foriegn ATM machines.

Luckily for us we had our Japanese Sumitomo bank cards with us and we were able to travel and use those cards.

After we got back, we went in and asked why our cards didn't work - they worked last year.

Apparantly, we needed to bring in our new ARC cards and then they changed our cards for us.

I imagine there have been people travelling out of Taiwan with only their Taishin or China Trust cards to find out they can't use them in foreign ATM machines - yet the CIRUS and INTERAC symbols are on the cards.

As backwards as Japan and Korea can be with banking, at least the cards I got there worked in foreign ATM machines when I travelled.

The thing is, China Trust never sent us any notice of the change, which really pissed me off. They just went and took our access away and didn't tell us.

What a ..cking stupid system.

[Pop Fly]

[clark.w.griswald]

There is some basis in what Aristotle writes here but as usual he has totally overstated the facts and created a post that loses its relevance as it contains such flowery language.

Many years ago you could open a bank account in Taiwan with nothing more than your passport. This was abused by the Nigerian email scam, and the government introduced a policy of requiring banks to insist upon an ARC before foreigners could open accounts in Taiwan.

More recently the government has started requiring banks to suspend accounts for which there is no current ARC information or for which the ARC supporting the accounts opening no longer exists or has expired.

The bank cannot freeze your funds and the monies in your account remain yours, but there is an inconvenience as you may need to return to the branch that you opened your account in person, in order to close your account and withdraw any remaining funds. I am not sure how the bank deals with any funds that are deposited into your account after the expiry of your ARC.

So while it is worth mentioning the above practice seems to be being enforced by banks, you shouldn't be concerned by Aristotles scaremongering. The practices obviously have nothing to do with race but are instead aimed at putting an end to non-residents working illegally in Taiwan as well as non-residents using Taiwan banks for illegal purposes.

Foreigners resident in Taiwan and holding the required ARC obviously have nothing to worry about.

[SanChong]

Hey Aristotle:

Is it difficult to type with a strait jacket on? I'm just curious.

If you could please share SSET's views on this important question, it would be very helpful to all teachers throughout Taiwan.

We thank you in advance!

[trukesehammer]

Heh! Just about EVERYTHING in Taiwan is arbitrary! But hey, I ain't complaining. Actually, it makes life here more interesting.