1. We have always welcomed mainland Chinese students to study in Taiwan. We also hoped that mainland Chinese students in Taiwan would soon enjoy more comprehensive health coverage as foreign students in Taiwan. Over the years, we continued to work with relevant agencies to advance discussions on including mainland Chinese students in the National Health Insurance (NHI) system, as well as communicated extensively with all sectors. In the numerous cross-Strait student exchange activities we organized in the past and through joint efforts with the Straits Exchange Foundation and the counseling units for mainland Chinese students at various schools to learn about mainland Chinese students’ needs in Taiwan, many mainland Chinese students expressed a desire to join the NHI system.
2. A key lesson from the three-year pandemic period was that excluding mainland Chinese students from Taiwan's NHI system could easily put Taiwan's epidemic prevention efforts at risk. Therefore, the Mainland Affairs Council joined the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), and other relevant agencies to deliberate on this matter. On November 23, 2023, the 3,881st session of the Executive Yuan passed a proposal on the regulatory inclusion of degree-seeking mainland Chinese Students in Taiwan in the NHI system. The measure was scheduled to come into effect on February 1, 2024, and was officially announced by the MOHW on November 24, 2023.