Fed up of confusion with China, Taiwan decides to redesign passport

To avoid being confused with China, Taiwan has decided to redesign its passport, Reuters reported. The step has been taken in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, due to which several nations imposed restrictions on Chinese nationals. Since Taiwan has ‘Republic of China’, its official name, written on its passport, several of its nationals faced problems in entering other countries.

“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’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said reporters on Wednesday.

Its present passport has the ‘Republic of China’ written in English at the top, with ‘Taiwan’ written at the bottom.

The new design will do away with the ‘Republic of China’ in English, however, it will be written in Chinese characters, Reuters reported.

It is expected to come into circulation in January.

China claims democratic Taiwan as its sovereign territory. It asserts that it has the right to speak for the island on all international platforms. 

Taiwan isn’t recognised by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, as China asserts sovereignty over the island nation.  

Meanwhile, the Taiwanese government is also considering a name change or a redesign of its largest carrier, China Airlines, in order to avoid confusion with China, Reuters reported.