The Ministry of the Interior has previewed proposed regulatory changes that would require government officials and civil servants of a certain rank to give advance notice of layovers in China while traveling.
According to a preview of the Regulations Governing Entry Permission to Mainland China for Government Employees and Persons with Special Status in the Taiwan Area (台灣地區公務員及特定身分人員進入大陸地區許可辦法), public employees and appointed or elected officials would need to seek government approval if their itinerary involved transits in China.
The proposed rules would exempt those traveling on official business, participating in a government-approved exchange or visiting relatives living abroad.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Civil servants with no security clearance would have to apply for a transit permit two working days before their departure and political appointees should apply for a permit seven working days before, the ministry said.
The proposed regulations do not apply to a layover in Hong Kong, it added.
The planned revisions were introduced in response to a Mainland Affairs Council determination on Jan. 26, 2017, that made a transit in China tantamount to entering “the mainland area” and therefore required public employees to give prior notice or apply for approval when traveling to China, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) said yesterday.
The ministry said that it also plans to revise the form that public employees are required to complete upon their return from China by including questions such as whether they attended activities sponsored by the Chinese government, were entreated to join apparatuses of the Chinese communist state or encountered attempts by the Chinese government to recruit or compromise them.
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