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Majority support adding `Taiwan' to passport cover

A majority of people support the proposal to add the word "Taiwan" to ROC passports to distinguish them from Chinese ones, according to the results of an opinion poll released yesterday by a government agency.

The Cabinet-level Research, Development and Evaluation Commission publicized the results of the June 5 survey after President Chen Shui-bian said Monday that the proposal would certainly be implemented because it has received majority popular support.

The commission's survey of 1,068 randomly selected adult residents found that 52.8 percent of the respondents were either "very supportive" or "supportive" of the proposal to add "Taiwan" at the end of the ROC's English national title printed on the cover of the passport to avoid confusion with communist China's national title, "People's Republic of China."

In contrast, 45.7 percent gave a thumbs-down to the proposal, with 22.4 percent voicing strong opposition.

Analyzing the survey findings, commission officials said the president's decision to go ahead with the proposed addition of the word "Taiwan" to the passport was well founded.

Meanwhile, 60 percent of the respondents to a similar poll conducted by the local media earlier this month also supported the proposal.

A recent telephone survey by TVBS cable television company also found that 56 percent of those interviewed gave a thumbs-up to the proposal.

The legislative caucus of the pro-unification opposition New Party, however, voiced strong opposition to the proposal, claiming that the move was a trick to signify pro-independence sentiments.

Levi C. Ying (營志宏), the New Party legislative whip, told a news conference that if the Cabinet and the Presidential Office insist on putting the proposal into effect, the New Party would do everything it could to block its implementation.

"The measures could include demanding the minister of foreign affairs to deliver a report to the Legislative Yuan, boycotting the passage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' budget plan and seeking a constitutional interpretation by the Council of Grand Justices," Ying explained.

Other New Party legislators echoed Ying's views at the news conference, alleging that the proposed addition of "Taiwan" to the English version of the national title would be tantamount to changing the country' formal designation and wasin stark violation of the ROC Constitution.

They urged the president to refrain from triggering a new round of debate on the sensitive "independence or unification" issue at this time of domestic economic hardship.
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