Fed up with being confused for China amid the coronavirus pandemic and Beijing’s stepped-up efforts to assert sovereignty, Taiwan said on Wednesday it would redesign its passport to give greater prominence to the island’s name.
A complaint has been made by Taiwan during the outbreak that its nationals have encountered problems entering other countries, as Taiwanese passports have the words “Republic of China,” its formal name, written in large English font at the top, with “Taiwan” printed at the bottom.
Removing the large English words “Republic of China”, the new passport expected to come into circulation in January, though the name in Chinese Characters will remain, and enlarges the word “Taiwan” in English.
Joseph Wu, Taiwan Foreign Minister, said that the new passports were needed to prevent their nationals from being mistaken for Chinese citizens, especially with the stepped-up entry check many countries have begun since the pandemic started.
Wu said, “Since the beginning of the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak this year our people have kept hoping that we can give more prominence to Taiwan’s visibility, avoiding people mistakenly thinking they are from China,”.
Taiwan democratic claimed by China as its sovereign territory and says only it has the right to speak for the island internationally, a position it has pushed strongly during the pandemic, especially at the World Health Organization.
This has confused many countries and led them to impose the same restrictions on Taiwanese travelers as on Chinese, and has minimized Taiwan’s own successful efforts to control the virus and far lower case number.
This issue has been debating for years by Taiwan who it is and what exactly its relationship should be with China – including the island’s name. But the pandemic has shot the issue back into the spotlight.
Source: US News