In unusually direct language, Taipei yesterday called on Beijing to pay more attention to Taiwan’s position on China’s controversial new passport, saying that China’s refusal to acknowledge its indignation had “hurt the feelings” of Taiwanese.
At the heart of the controversy is a new passport that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) began issuing in May, which features watermarks that include famous tourist attractions in Taiwan, such as Nantou’s Sun Moon Lake and Hualien’s Chingshui Cliffs; Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin — areas whose sovereignty Beijing disputes with India; and 90 percent of the South China Sea.
Countries in the region, including Vietnam, India and the Philippines, reacted with indignation when the contents of the new passport were reported in news articles last month, making demarches to Beijing and issuing visas to Chinese visitors bearing imprints of their own rectified maps.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Taiwan’s response to the inclusion of its territory in the passport was much more muted than that of the other countries, prompting accusations that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was not being vocal enough in asserting Taiwan’s independence and had failed to take seriously the implications of China’s action on the nation’s sovereign status.
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) told the legislature yesterday that the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) had written to the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) last week to explain Taiwan’s position on the matter.
The SEF and ARATS are semi-official bodies created to handle cross-strait affairs in the absence of official bilateral diplomatic relations.
In a reply received on Wednesday, ARATS dismissed Taiwan’s protest as “invalid,” adding that the design of the new passport had only become an issue after “pro-independence activists” had “made a fuss” over the matter, Wang said.
Wang said that Beijing’s response misrepresented the situation and he urged China to pay greater attention to Taiwan’s indignation over the passports.
“This incident is not a partisan concern, nor does it bother only a small number of people in Taiwan,” he said, dispelling the notion that only supporters of Taiwanese independence had been angered. “If the mainland authorities fail to realize this, the development of relations across the Taiwan Strait will be undermined.”
Beijing’s handling of the matter is “unacceptable” to Taiwan because it demonstrates that Beijing does not realize how serious an impact the incident has had on cross-strait ties, he said, adding that ties between Taiwan and China were defined as “special relations” rather than direct state-to-state relations, echoing remarks made by Ma the previous day.
Taiwan’s territory as outlined in the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution includes China, but at present its jurisdiction covers only Taiwan and the outlying islands of Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators last week demanded that SEF Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) step down after he said that Chinese officials had assured him that the new passport had not been designed with any “particular motive in mind,” except to be “trendy.”
In reaction to what it called an insufficiently assertive reaction to the matter on behalf of the government, the DPP began issuing passport stickers earlier this month featuring a map of Taiwan and its outlying islands over which a text reading: “Taiwan is my country” was superimposed.
Although the ROC does not recognize PRC passports and Chinese visitors who come to Taiwan are required to apply for a “compatriot pass” issued by the National Immigration Agency, the process nevertheless requires a passport.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the