Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) yesterday unveiled three design proposals for a revised passport cover, at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee in Taipei.
The proposals were in response to a debate about whether to emphasize “Taiwan” and de-emphasize “China” in the wording on the cover.
Chung proposed designs including one with no English wording at all, which keeps the overall design of the current passport.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
Another replaced the national emblem with a map of the main island of Taiwan, and had the words “Taiwan Passport” in large lettering at the top and “Republic of China” in smaller lettering at the bottom, both in Chinese and English.
A third design replaced the national emblem with an image of a cup of bubble tea and had only the words “Taiwan Passport” in Chinese and English.
During the meeting, which was attended by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chung said that the use of the word “China” on the passport had caused problems for Taiwanese traveling abroad, as they have been mistaken for Chinese nationals.
Asked whether the Bureau of Consular Affairs had received any complaints about the current passport, bureau Director-General Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said that the bureau receives about 10 complaints per year.
Neither the National Emblem Act (中華民國國徽國旗法), nor the Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act (護照條例施行細則) stipulate that the passport must display the national emblem, Chung said.
However, the Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act does prohibit individual passport owners from modifying the graphics in their passports or adding new graphics without authorization, he added.
Asked whether the ministry has the authority to change the cover of the passport, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) said: “That should be the case.”
Chung said that there was no need to have the nation’s name written in English or a national symbol on the cover of the passport, citing examples from countries like Germany and Switzerland, which have English only for the word “passport,” and France, which has no English on its passport cover at all.
Similarly, the Salvadorean passport has only Spanish on its cover and a map of the region, and the Republic of Guinea passport has only French and the emblem for the Economic Community of West African States, of which it is a member, he said.
Of the 156 non-English-speaking countries worldwide, 71 do not display English-language names for their countries on their passport covers, Chung said, adding that the nation’s earliest passports had only Chinese characters on their covers.
Changing the passport design would require public consensus, Hsu said.
Responding to a comment by Chung that passports could be revised any year, as the ministry needs to print new passports annually, Yeh said that the ministry still has 600,000 passports left over from last year, as people are not traveling because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
CASE: Prosecutors have requested heavy sentences, citing a lack of remorse and the defendants’ role in ‘undermining the country’s democratic foundations’ Five people affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), including senior staff from the party’s Taipei branch, were indicted yesterday for allegedly forging thousands of signatures to recall two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. Those indicted include KMT Taipei chapter director Huang Lu Chin-ru (黃呂錦茹), secretary-general Chu Wen-ching (初文卿) and secretary Yao Fu-wen (姚富文), the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said in a news release. Prosecutors said the three were responsible for fabricating 5,211 signature forms — 2,537 related to the recall of DPP Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) and 2,674 for DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) — with forged entries accounting for