More than 70 percent of Taiwanese in a poll have said that the government should remove the nation’s English-language name “Republic of China” from the cover of the nation’s passports and only use “Taiwan” as the nation’s English name so that foreign immigration officials would not mistake Taiwanese travelers for Chinese nationals, a poll showed.
The New Power Party (NPP) released the results of its survey yesterday.
The cover of the nation’s passports bears the name “Republic of China” in English under the nation’s official Chinese name, while “Taiwan” is printed in English under the national emblem.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
However, 74.3 percent of respondents said that the passport’s cover should use just “Taiwan” as the English title, as the nation and Taiwanese have often been negatively associated with China amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The change would avoid Taiwanese being confused with Chinese, they said.
According to the poll, 51.2 percent said they were very supportive of the suggestion, 23.1 percent said they supported it, 10.8 percent said they did not support it and 6.4 percent said they absolutely did not support it, while 8.5 percent did not express any opinion.
“People have suggested using stickers or passport holders to distinguish the Taiwanese passport from the Chinese passport. However, stickers might cause confusion. We suggest that the passport cover be redesigned,” NPP Chairman Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said.
The party would ask people to submit their ideas for a new passport cover design before the summer vacation, Hsu said, adding that it would work with experts to create samples for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to consider.
The survey, conducted on Monday and Tuesday last week, collected 1,085 valid questionnaires and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The results were weighted based on gender, age and education, the party said.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS