A mainland-born Chinese Liu Zhenya who lived in Taiwan after marrying a Taiwanese resident was denied residence in Taiwan on grounds that she promoted a “Chinese takeover of Taiwan by force.”
Liu runs a Chinese social media channel on Douyin (a platform similar to TikTok, owned by ByteDance and operated in mainland China). Her channel, called “Yaya in Taiwan (亚亚在台湾),” has 475,000 followers. Among the over 300 videos she has posted, the most-watched one, with 2.77 million views, featured her daughter loudly shouting, “I am Nezha, and I’m here to take you all in!” {Editor’s Note: Nezha, a child-god from a Chinese fairy tale, was good at fighting. The statement hinted taking Taiwan over by force.}
The rest of Liu’s content mainly consists of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “positive energy” videos promoting messages such as “Cross-strait reunification,” “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and “Returning to our mother’s embrace is the more realistic choice” {a euphemism for Taiwan returning to mainland Chinese control}.
Born in Hunan Province, Liu married and had two children in China. She divorced her husband and married a Taiwanese man, thus becoming a “mainland spouse.” This status allowed her to obtain a residence permit in Taiwan.
In Taiwan, she gave birth to her daughter, her third child, who is legally Taiwanese. She divorced her Taiwanese husband (and there were suspicions that the marriage was fake to begin with and that she married only to get Taiwanese residence status). She returned to mainland China and remarried her original husband. Then she came back to Taiwan to raise her Taiwanese-born daughter, and she managed to bring her parents, her mainland-Chinese husband, and her two mainland-born children from mainland China to Taiwan.
On March 15, Taiwan’s immigration authorities revoked Liu’s dependent residence permit because of her “Yaya in Taiwan” channel’s open advocacy for forceful reunification of mainland China and Taiwan.
After her permit was revoked, Liu immediately deleted her previous videos and started to praise Taiwan’s culture, people, and medical system on her channel. She said in a media interview that her three children were too young and that she needed to stay in Taiwan with them. She filed an appeal against the immigration authorities’ decision. Taiwan’s High Court sustained the authorities’ decision after watching her three videos promoting the “CCP’s reunification with Taiwan by force.” Liu is now required to leave Taiwan by March 25.
Some netizens left sarcastic remarks on the internet regarding Liu’s enjoyment of the benefits of life in Taiwan while supporting the CCP. One such comment read, “The most remarkable consensus in this incident is that both people on the mainland and in Taiwan unanimously support her return to the mainland; but the most ironic part is that the only person who doesn’t want to go back is her, despite her continuously saying that Taiwan should be returned to mainland China’s embrace.”
Two other “Mainland Spouses” who also advocated for “reunification with Taiwan by force” are also facing deportation.
Sources:
1. China Digital Times, March 22, 2025
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/716799.html
2. X Platform, March 23, 2025
https://x.com/xinwendiaocha/status/1903754992911302969
3. Wenxue City, March 22, 2025
https://bbs.wenxuecity.com/mychina/1093226.html
4. Yahoo, March 22, 2025
https://tw.news.yahoo.com/亞亞聲請停止執行被駁回-限3-25前離境-另2中配也遭廢居留許可-003641063.html