The government needs to take countermeasures to China’s purported plans to allow Republic of China (ROC) passport holders to enjoy the same benefits of visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to some nations as Chinese citizens, an international politics expert said yesterday.
In nations where Chinese passport holders enjoy visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry, but ROC passport holders do not, Beijing is looking to help Taiwanese enjoy the same benefits by presenting their ROC passport and Beijing-issued “Taiwan compatriot travel document,” the Chinese-language China Times reported yesterday, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter.
While many more nations have granted visa-free access to ROC passport holders than to Chinese, Taiwanese are still required to apply for visas to some nations where Chinese enjoy the benefits of visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry, the newspaper said.
Although the proposal is still in its planning stages, Taiwan’s responses to China’s suppression of its international space to this point have been too conservative and passive, said Chen Mu-min (陳牧民), a professor at the Graduate Institute of International Politics at National Chung Hsing University.
Foreign policy decisionmakers need to change their mentality and tactics, Chen said.
One example of a proactive measure would be for the government to focus its foreign affairs and national security policies not only on being friendly toward the US, but on how to form closer connections to Southeast Asian society as part of its New Southbound Policy push, Chen said.
The government should ease or remove limits to allow foreign migrants and students to more easily obtain residency or even ROC citizenship, Chen said.
This would allow Taiwan to become a truly ethnically diverse society, different from a Han Chinese society, he said.
Beijing would also have less reason to claim that Taiwan is part of China, he added.
The China Times also said that Taiwanese have been required to present a “Taiwan compatriot travel document” if they want to visit the UN’s various offices.
China is systematically cultivating talent for international organizations to use administrative tactics to interfere with Taiwan’s participation on the global stage on the one hand, but on the other it is not stopping Taiwanese from using their ROC passports to visit the offices of international institutions, an unnamed foreign affairs official said.
Rather, it is gradually recognizing that Taiwanese are encouraged to present their ROC passports along with a “Taiwan compatriot travel document,” as another way to lure Taiwanese into going along with this “convenient system,” the official said.
However, accepting this type of system would be equivalent to recognizing “one China,” the official added.
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