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Lawmakers pan
inaction over China passports
By Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff reporter
Dissatisfied with the government’s inaction in dealing with the inclusion of
Taiwanese territory in China’s new passports, the legislature’s Foreign Affairs
and National Defense Committee yesterday approved a resolution calling for the
government to act on the matter.
The non-binding motion said that to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty, the
government should immediately compose a formal letter to China to protest
against over the inclusion of Taiwan, the South China Sea and the Diaoyutai
Islands (釣魚台) in its new passport and demand the content be corrected.
The motion was proposed by Democratic Progressive Party legislators Chen Ting-fei
(陳亭妃), Mark Chen (陳唐山) and Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) and adopted unanimously.
China in May issued new e-passports that include a map showing Taiwan and the
disputed South China Sea as Chinese territory, as well as pictures of Taiwanese
tourist spots such as Nantou County’s Sun Moon Lake and Hualien’s Chingshui
Cliffs.
The government has come under fire for failing to counter China’s claims over
the controversial territories in the manner of some other countries, prompting
lawmakers to arrange for Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) and
Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) to testify before the
committee.
Lin and Liu told the committee that their agencies did not know about China’s
new passports until the Financial Times reported the news last month.
Lawmakers offered various ideas on how to react to the Chinese passport.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said the government
should call an international press conference to make its position on the matter
clear to the international community, a suggestion some other lawmakers
seconded.
DPP Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) demanded that the government include pictures
of China’s Yellow River and the Yangtze River in Taiwanese passports.
The ministry should instruct its overseas officials not to accept new Chinese
passports if they are used to apply for special travel documents to visit
Taiwan, DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
In reaction to the new passports, the DPP has recently printed stickers saying:
“Taiwan is my country” and made them available to the public so that people can
place the stickers on the cover of their passport.
The ministry warned people not to do so, but David Lin yesterday clarified the
ministry’s position by saying that while people could violate passport
regulations if they put stickers on the inside of their passports, the ministry
was not opposed to the stickers being placed on passports covers.
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