Starting Sept. 1, the country will begin issuing a new version of passports with the word "Taiwan" printed on the cover in Roman script, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, stressing that the move was governed by practical considerations and not politics.
"It's our hope to begin issuing the new passports on Sept.1,"Minster of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) said yesterday afternoon.
Chien held the press briefing after a closed-door meeting with around 10 lawmakers from several parties to discuss the long-delayed passport reform project.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Dubbing the meeting as "harmonious," Chien said the ministry planned to issue the new passports on Sept. 1 at the earliest, despite some legislators' suggestion that the scheme should be implemented as soon as possible.
It is estimated that there are still about 330,000 old passports in stock and that they will run out by the end of September, Chien said.
According to the plan, the word "Taiwan" in Roman letters will be added to the middle of the cover. The rest of the current design -- including the national emblem and the nation's name, Republic of China (ROC) written in English and Chinese -- will remain, Chien said.
The minister said the changes are practical and not the result of any political strategy.
In fact, Chien said, the foreign ministry found the whole process of passport reform difficult because it involved the sensitive issue of reunification versus independence in Taiwan.
"We've endeavored to find the great common denominator that everyone agrees on, without running the risk of lapsing into the political difficulties I've just mentioned," he said.
Chien said he hoped Taiwanese nationals traveling with the new passports would no longer be mistaken for travelers from China, as the new covers are expected to help distinguish Republic of China passports from People's Republic of China passports.
Chien acknowledge that many citizens had complained about the confusion caused in other countries by having an ROC passport.
To illustrate his point he told how two ministry officials were recently "trapped" while in transit at the Rome airport because their ROC passports were mistaken for PRC passports by airline crews.
The minister dismissed the possibility of having the word "Taiwan" placed inside the passport, saying that placing the word on the cover would greatly help to distinguish this country's passport from PRC ones.
The ministry will explain the change to foreign countries and airline companies around the globe in a timely manner, Chien said.
Officials, however, were silent when asked by the press to clarify related laws to regulate the period during which both the current passports and new passports will be circulated among Taiwanese nationals.
Several recent polls have shown that more than half of the respondents backed the proposal to add the word "Taiwan" to the current passport covers to help ROC passport holders during their foreign travels.
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
RSS