{"id":62954,"date":"2016-04-09T22:06:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T22:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=62954 "},"modified":"2016-04-09T22:06:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-09T22:06:00","slug":"62954-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=62954","title":{"rendered":"\\&#8217;Taiwan Republic\\&#8217; passport stickers cause a stink in China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">8 April 2016<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2016\/14\/201648_89141066_8apr_taiwan_comp.jpg\" alt=\"201648_89141066_8apr_taiwan_comp.jpg (660&#215;371)\" \/><br \/><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">An original Taiwanese passport (L) and modified documents (R)<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">The news that Taiwan&#8217;s parliament has effectively authorised travellers to attach &#8220;Taiwan Republic&#8221; stickers to their passports has sparked heated discussion in mainland China.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">Parliament decided on 6 April to lift the punishments for Taiwan passport holders who &#8220;add, modify or delete markings&#8221; from their travel documents.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">The controversial stickers, which replace &#8220;Republic of China&#8221; with &#8220;Republic of Taiwan&#8221;, became a popular trend when they launched in August last year.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">However, China&#8217;s government sees them as a symbol of Taiwanese independence and has refused entry to passport holders who sport them.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">Denied entry<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">During the parliamentary session that saw the punishments overturned, the government warned holders that they must still &#8220;bear the risks&#8221; of having such stickers on their passports.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">A number of Taiwanese travellers have been denied entry into China and other countries as a result of the stickers.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">The Macau Daily Times reported in February that 15 Taiwanese citizens had been refused entry into the special administrative region of China, as a result of the &#8220;politically controversial and sensitive&#8221; stickers.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">The same month, two Taiwanese travellers were denied entry into Hong Kong &#8220;on the grounds that their passports had been altered without permission&#8221; according to independent news website Hong Kong Free Press.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">In December, three travellers were denied entry into Singapore.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">Following the Taiwanese move to authorise the stickers, Chinese state-run national newspaper Global Times warns that travellers may be denied entry further afield.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">&#8220;The mainland&#8217;s influence is much bigger than Taiwan&#8217;s,&#8221; it says in an editorial. &#8220;As long as the mainland is willing, it is not hard to stonewall those with the &#8216;sticker passports&#8217; at immigration control points everywhere in the world.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">&#8216;Poisons trust&#8217;<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">Chinese state media have condemned the ruling that the stickers are no longer deemed to &#8220;add, modify or delete markings&#8221; from official travel documents.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">The overseas edition of government mouthpiece People&#8217;s Daily warns that authorisation of the stickers may lead to other forms of rebellion.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">&#8220;If Taiwan allows its passport covers to be &#8216;changed&#8217;, will it allow people to change their identity cards, driving licence, marriage certificate or &#8216;legal declarations&#8217;?&#8221; it asks.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">&#8220;How will documents issued by Taiwan remain authoritative? How can we trust it if it is allowing people to change the &#8216;country&#8217;? Is this a game of the &#8216;Legislative Yuan&#8217; or an &#8216;asylum for the insane&#8217;?&#8221;<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">English-language newspaper China Daily similarly warned that the stickers will result in &#8220;more Taiwanese compatriots bringing trouble and controversy&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">It said that the ruling &#8220;only further poisons trust across the Taiwan Straits&#8221;.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">&#8216;Tsai&#8217;s masterpiece&#8217;<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">Social media users on the popular Sina Weibo microblog are worried about the ruling, with many saying the news is &#8220;laughable&#8221; and that holders of such stickers have a &#8220;death wish&#8221;.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">&#8220;This is Tsai&#8217;s masterpiece&#8221;, one user says, suggesting that the stickers are part of a subtle campaign by president-elect Tsai Ing-wen to garner support for Taiwanese independence.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">Another user says it is an example of Tsai using &#8220;more trickery&#8221;, as she has not made clear whether or not she recognises that Taiwan is an independent country.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">&#8220;Sooner or later, the Taiwanese will have to pay a price for their choice,&#8221; adds &#8216;Shaowei Guancha&#8217;.<\/span><\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-35998426\"><p><br \/><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\">For detail please visit here<\/span><\/p><\/a><p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;\"><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;Parliament decided on 6 April to lift the punishments for Taiwan passport holders who &quot;add, modify or delete markings&quot; from their travel documents.The controversial stickers, which replace &quot;Republic of China&quot; with &quot;Republic of Taiwan&quot;, became a popular trend when they launched in August last year.&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}