Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Wednesday (September 2) that it has updated its passport design to include a smaller version of the original “REPUBLIC OF CHINA” and an enlarged version that highlights “TAIWAN” in English. English Words. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) stressed that countries have tightened entry screening due to the epidemic in order to prevent Taiwanese from being mistaken as coming from China when leaving the country.
Since the outbreak of the Xinguan epidemic in January this year, countries have been restricting the entry of travelers from China, and some Taiwanese people have been mistaken as coming from the People’s Republic of China when entering other countries because of the words “REPUBLIC OF CHINA” printed on their passports. Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan resolved in late July that the executive branch should improve the recognition of “Taiwan” and “Taiwan” in passports in order to protect the rights and interests of the Taiwanese people.
Taiwan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wu Zhao Xie said at a press conference at the Executive Yuan on Wednesday: “There are some people overseas because they are misunderstood as being from China, and that is why they have been subjected to some unnecessary treatment, and I think these have been seen in the media, and since then there have been more and more voices saying that we should highlight the visibility of the TAIWAN in our Taiwanese passports. “
Taiwan’s current passport has the Chinese characters “Republic of China” alongside the English characters “REPUBLIC OF CHINA”. The redesign of the passport retains the elements of the current version, but shrinks the English official name “REPUBLIC OF CHINA” around the outer ring of the national emblem. At the same time, the word “TAIWAN” is enlarged and juxtaposed with the word “PASSPORT” to emphasize that it is a “passport of Taiwan”.
However, the Tsai administration’s decision to update the passport cover design has come under fire from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT). The KMT released a statement on Wednesday, saying that the DPP is provoking ideology by shrinking the “REPUBLIC OF CHINA” to the point of almost disappearing, “instead of losing the opportunity for the Republic of China to come into the international arena and reveal itself as a nation, resulting in a self-deflating controversy. “
Professor Jiang Huangchi of National Taiwan University’s School of Law emphasized in a Voice of America interview that the legal effect of the current passport and the new passport is basically unchanged, except for adjusting the size of the wording and highlighting the wording “TAIWAN” to avoid confusion with China.
He believes that even if the “PUBLIC OF CHINA” in the passport will be deleted, leaving only “TAIWAN”, as long as the Tsai Ing-wen government did not announce the change in the country’s number, there will be no difference in the law; but he reminded that if the “PUBLIC OF CHINA” is deleted, it is necessary to pay attention to China, the United States, Japan and other countries will produce different judgments, this aspect may have to do before the communication.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the new version of the passport is expected to be issued in January next year, and will inform the International Air Transport Association (IATA), governments, airports, ports and customs, immigration and other relevant authorities and airlines.
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