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TAIPEI (REUTERS) – Fed up with being confused with China amid the coronavirus pandemic and Beijing’s intensified efforts to assert sovereignty, Taiwan said on Wednesday (September 2) that it would redesign its passport to give greater prominence to the name of the island.
Taiwan has complained during the outbreak that its people have had trouble entering other countries, as Taiwanese passports have the words “ROC,” their formal name, written in large English type across the top, with ” Taiwan “printed on the bottom.
The new passport, which is expected to go into circulation in January, removes the large English words “ROC”, though the Chinese character name will remain, and expands the English word “Taiwan”.
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said new passports are needed to prevent Taiwanese from being mistaken for Chinese nationals, especially with the intensified entry controls that many countries have started since the pandemic began.
“Since the beginning of the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak this year, our people have continued to hope that we can give more prominence to the visibility of Taiwan, preventing people from mistakenly thinking that they are from China,” Wu told reporters.
China asserts that democratic Taiwan is its sovereign territory and says it only has the right to speak on behalf of the island internationally, a position it has pushed strongly during the pandemic, especially at the World Health Organization.
Taipei says this has confused countries and led them to impose the same restrictions on Taiwanese travelers as Chinese travelers, and downplayed Taiwan’s successful efforts to control the virus and far fewer numbers.
Taiwan has been debating for years who it is and what exactly its relationship with China should be, including the name of the island.
But the pandemic has put the issue back in the spotlight.
The government is also considering a name change, or at least a complete redesign, for Taiwan’s largest airline, China Airlines, again to avoid confusion with China.
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