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China's new passports unacceptable, harmful to mutual trust: Taiwan

ROC Central News Agency

2012/11/23 18:13:34

Taipei, Nov. 23 (CNA) China's inclusion of Taiwan as part of its national map and pictures of Taiwanese scenic spots in its new passports is unacceptable, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Friday in a strongly worded statement.

"The move completely ignores reality, only provokes disputes and harms the basis of mutual trust that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have been striving to build in recent years," the MAC said in a statement with language harsher than used in recent years as ties with China have improved.

The controversial move has also hurt the feelings of Taiwan's 23 million people and is absolutely unacceptable to the Republic of China (ROC) government, the statement added.

It was the second response in as many days from Taiwan's top agency in charge of coordinating the country's China policy after the People's Republic of China (PRC) unveiled its new passports Thursday.

Each page in the passport has a different background motif. In pictures provided by Chinese media, one of the pages shows a map of what the PRC claims as its "national" territory -- China, Taiwan and the South China Sea (shown bordered by a nine-dash line).

The islands and waters of the South China Sea are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia, and self-governed Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign country under the formal Republic of China designation.

"The ROC is a sovereign independent country. According to the ROC Constitution, the ROC has its inherent territory," the MAC said, adding that the mainland Chinese authorities should face the reality that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are now governed separately.

The statement also urged mainland China to pragmatically face the reality of the ROC's existence.

"Based on our established foundation, mainland China should shelve disputes and face the reality," the statement said.

The PRC's use of a map showing its territorial claims in the passport was seen as a provocation in part "because it will require other nations to tacitly endorse the claims by affixing their official seals" to the passport, according to the Associated Press.

"The Chinese mainland should avoid giving the impression that it is unilaterally changing the status quo," the MAC said, warning that any such move could impair hard-earned achievements in cross-strait relations and even lead to barriers in or the regression of bilateral ties.

Separate pages of the new PRC passports also feature photos of two popular tourist destinations in Taiwan -- Sun Moon Lake and the Chingshui Cliffs on the Suhua Highway on Taiwan's east coast.

The MAC pointed out in its statement that Sun Moon Lake and Chingshui Cliffs are both part of the ROC's territory, which is not under the Chinese mainland's jurisdiction.

Vietnam and the Philippines also criticized China's move, with the Philippines saying it "strongly protests" the decision and Vietnam lodging a formal complaint with the Chinese embassy in Hanoi.

(By Scarlett Chai and Sofia Wu)
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