New passports with the word "Taiwan" in Roman script on the cover were formally issued yesterday.
To mark the occasion, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
Kuo Yi-ming (
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"I think I'd like to visit China first," he said when asked where he would like to go with his new passport.
Unfortunately for Kuo, his new passport will be of little use to him on this trip as Taiwanese visiting China need a "Taiwan compatriot" travel document.
Yang Sheng-chung (楊勝宗), director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Bureau of Consular Affairs, said that old passports will remain valid until their expiry dates. Old versions of the passport had only the nation's official name, Republic of China, on the cover.
The government's move to add the word "Taiwan" to the cover has upset China, which views it as an affront to the "one China" principle.
Chien defended the change as being apolitical. He said that Taiwanese traveling abroad were often confused with citizens of China and that now it would be clear where they were from.
The foreign minister also said that many countries had expressed a willingness to cooperate with Taiwan over the new passports after a publicity campaign through embassies, consulates and representative offices.
"We have not heard of any dissenting opinions concerning this new version of the passport so far; because after all, it is a pure travel document for ROC nationals," Chien said.
Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (
Meanwhile, members of the Alliance to Campaign for Rectifying the Name of Taiwan, in an attempt to further their cause of changing the nation's name to Taiwan, yesterday handed out passport jackets with "Republic of Taiwan" printed on them to travelers at CKS International Airport.
Also See Story:
DPP holds contest on passport
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS