When Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) in November last year asked then-minister of the interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) to comment on Chung’s proposed amendment to the Household Registration Act (戶籍法) that sought to build a government-managed database containing images of people’s irises, Yeh said that the government should obtain people’s consent to archive the data.
Yeh cited the Council of Grand Justices’ Constitutional Interpretation 603, which in 2005 declared unconstitutional a similar amendment to the act, which required people to have their fingerprints taken before they could renew their national ID cards. Such requirements could constitute violations of free will, Yeh said.
The requirement was nullified, while Chung the next day retracted his bill amid mounting criticism that it would “deteriorate human rights conditions” in the nation.
The incidents show that even in Taiwan, where human rights and democratic values are upheld by the government, people are still cautious about having their biometric data collected.
Beijing’s policy requiring Taiwanese to have their fingerprints printed on a card if they want to work or study in China — as it requires for Chinese, as well as those from Hong Kong and Macau — is dangerous for two reasons:
First, China is a hegemony with an atrocious record of human rights violations.
This month alone, Beijing was found to have committed two major human rights violations: the arrest on Aug. 1 of retired Shandong University professor Sun Wenguang (孫文廣) and its secret detention of an estimated 1 million Uighurs and ethnic minorities in a facility described by media as a “massive internment camp” in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Sun was forcibly taken from his home by eight Chinese People’s Armed Police officers in the middle of an interview with Voice of America after he criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “money squandering” diplomacy. The 84-year-old was allowed to return home, but was placed under house arrest. If major news outlets had not covered the incident, he might never have been released.
While China has said that it detained Muslims to prevent militants from staging attacks on Han people, the move was based on a presumption of guilt and highlights Beijing’s serious lack of concern about human rights.
Some of the detainees, including Uighur students who returned to China from overseas, have died in custody, UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination member Gay McDougall said.
Second, it should not be forgotten that the Chinese Communist Party regime is still hostile toward Taiwan.
Beijing’s inclusion of Taiwan and no other nations in its residency permit system speaks volumes about its ambition to annex Taiwan. China is essentially putting Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau in the same rank, insinuating that Taiwan is part of its territory.
Some have argued that China has a legitimate reason to collect fingerprints, because Japan, the US and the EU also do so at immigration, but the reasoning is weak and lacks any convincing basis of comparison, considering China’s disregard for human rights and the reality of cross-strait relations.
The government warned Taiwanese that there is no telling what Chinese authorities would do once they get hold of people’s fingerprints, but judging by the way Beijing fashioned the residency cards, there is much more at risk than just personal safety.
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