Stickers of “Republic of Taiwan” on ROC Passports to Be Banned in 2016

 Stickers of “Republic of Taiwan” on ROC Passports to Be Banned in 2016

Sources: All Taipei Newspapers

November 18, 2015

Pro-Taiwan independence advocates have encouraged citizens to cover the Republic of China (ROC) national emblem on their passports with tailor-made “Republic of Taiwan” stickers.  The Foreign Ministry’s Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA) stated that such conduct violated the Statute Governing the Issuance of Passports (護照條例), as amended last May, which would come into effect on January 1^st, 2016.  The BOCA also amended the Enforcement Rules of the Statute Governing the Issuance of Foreign Passports (護照條例施行細則) to clearly stipulate that “no one shall deface or alter the cover of ROC passports.”

Kung Chung-chen (龔中誠), BOCA Director-General, stated that the ruling and opposition parties in the Legislative Yuan agreed that the front cover of ROC passports would have the Chinese characters and the English words “Republic of China” at the top as well as the English word “Taiwan” below the national emblem in the center, as on the existing cover of the ROC passport.  The Foreign Ministry stated that they respected each ROC citizen’s right to express their own political views, but immigration officers in other countries might suspect that a passport was a counterfeit if its cover had been tampered with because a passport was a government-issued travel document.

Director-General Kung pointed out that the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) told the BOCA that the US Homeland Security Department would reserve the right to deny entry to anyone who tried to travel to the US with a tampered passport cover.  In addition, Kung stated, some ROC citizens had gone to AIT for visa or immigrant matters using ROC passports with “Republic of Taiwan” stickers on their cover.  AIT demanded that the ROC citizens remove the stickers, otherwise, AIT would not accept their passports, Kung noted.  Kung went on to say that the Bureau of Immigration of the Philippines had also told the BOCA that they would not accept ROC passports with tampered covers.

Furthermore, Kung added, some ROC citizens whose passports were covered with “Republic of Taiwan” stickers had been denied entry to Macau.  Director-General Kung　went on to say that the BOCA did not know the details of particular cases, but it was not surprised that such ROC citizens would be denied entry because Macau was a special administrative zone of Mainland China.   

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