There is no doubt that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ recently proposed addendum to the Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act (護照條例施行細則) was purposefully drafted to take aim at the “Republic of Taiwan” and “Taiwan is my country” stickers sported by some Taiwanese on the covers of their Republic of China (ROC) passports.
Not only does the proposed addendum ban an individual from making any modifications to or putting unwarranted stamps on the cover of their passport, it further highlights that: “[The ban] set forth by Item 2, Article 5 of the Passport Act on modification, alteration or stamps to the passport refers to any unauthorized acts made to the cover, back cover or inner pages of a passport that could affect its original appearance.”
As the ministry was quickly taunted by the nation’s netizens for its rather efficient manner in addressing this trivial matter, one has to wonder whether there are any more grave issues at hand that the ministry could be devoting its attention to.
It has been the failure of the ministry to promote the visibility of the ROC — the official national moniker — that has prompted many Taiwanese to take action into their own hands. The practical solution has been to place stickers on ROC passports so the international community is aware that there is a difference between the ROC and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
In the past, members of the international community have often confused the ROC with the PRC and have also had trouble differentiating Taiwanese from Chinese, resulting in cases of unnecessary inconvenience to ROC passport holders when they travel through customs.
It was for this reason that in 2002, under the administration of then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), that the word “Taiwan” was printed above “Passport” on the cover of the nation’s passports, alongside the formal “ROC” designation. This seemed to put an end to the confusion.
It was also for a similar reason that in May last year, amid violent demonstrations against China in Vietnam, the ministry, in a bid to protect Vietnam-based Taiwanese from being attacked by anti-China protesters, handed out designed stickers to the estimated 40,000 Taiwanese in Vietnam to identify the wearer as a Taiwanese national.
The stickers bore the message: “I am Taiwanese. I am from Taiwan” written in Vietnamese with “I am from Taiwan” repeated underneath in English.
During President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 2008 election campaign, he famously told supporters that he would be Taiwanese until the day he dies. During his re-election campaign in 2011, his office also created the slogan: “I’m a Taiwanese and also an ROCer,” referring to an ROC national.
If a sticker allows members of the international community to immediately distinguish Taiwan from China, while also promoting Taiwan on the international stage, then why not encourage it?
In the wake of Ma’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore earlier this month, during which Ma veered the nation toward Beijing’s “one China” framework without the public’s consent, the ministry, rather than spending time on petty issues such as the stickers, should ponder more serious concerns, such as what is wrong with the ROC passport and why are Taiwanese being mistaken for Chinese? It should also ask itself: Why is it so afraid to speak Taiwan’s name?
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