Taiwan is about to abandon the "permit to enter the mainland" currently issued to China-bound passengers, and will either simply subject such travelers to the same general immigration document-inspection procedures to which all overseas-bound travelers are subject or require that they declare their destination, a Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official said yesterday.
Public servants and national security officials, however, will be excluded from the new measure and will still be required to obtain the permits. Those breaching the rule will face fines of NT$200,000 to NT$1 million.
Travelers entitled to use the small three links to travel to China from Taiwan's outlying islands but who require a special permit to use that route will continue to need to obtain that permit but will no longer be required to obtain the "permit to enter the mainland."
The permits were introduced in 1992 on national security grounds. In practice, however, the system has been unworkable.
China does not recognize ROC passports. Instead it issues Taiwanese travelers with a Taiwan Compatriot Card which it stamps when the traveler enters and exits the country. Inspection of an ROC passport does not therefore reveal evidence of a visit to China or an intention to visit China.
Very few travelers to China have been punished for traveling without a permit.
The changes are to be reviewed by the Legislative Yuan in September and will take effect upon approval.
The MAC is reviewing the 10-year old Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) and is expected to present proposed changes to the Legislative Yuan in September.
MAC Vice Chairman Jonathan Liu (
"Aiming to coordinate the practical situation with the law, we decided to adjust the law by subjecting China-bound travelers to much simpler procedures," Liu said.
According to Liu, Chinese government figures show that 3 million Taiwanese traveled to China last year, most of whom did not obtain the permits.
The council is to make a decision as to whether China-bound passengers will be required to declare their destination to immigration officers at their port of exit. Asked how such a system could be enforced, Liu said he was not prepared to comment at this stage.
The director of the MAC's department of legal affairs, Jeff Yang (楊家駿), told reporters that the advantage of adding the destination-declaration procedure to the general immigration inspection is that it would enable the government to gather statistics on the number of China-bound passengers each year.
In terms of public servants and personnel engaged in national security matters, the new regulation would raise fines -- currently between NT$20,000 and NT$100,000 -- to between NT$200,000 and NT$1 million if they fail to obtain permission from the government before visiting China.
In addition, the council is changing related articles of the statute to stipulate that the sentences of Chinese immigrants jailed for criminal offenses be reduced by the period of time spent in custody before their trial.
"To protect such Chinese immigrants' human rights, we think it is reasonable for them to see their sentences reduced to reflect how long they stayed in detention centers," Liu said.
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