"Republic of Taiwan" sticker In 2015, a pro-independence activist, Denis Chen, designed the
Taiwan Passport Sticker (Republic of Taiwan sticker) to be placed on the front cover of ROC passports. The stickers re-brand the country's name as () and "Republic of Taiwan", as well as replacing the existing national emblem of a
Blue Sky with a White Sun with cartoons either of
Jade Mountain, a
Formosan black bear, or pro-democracy activist
Cheng Nan-jung. Although applauded by pro-independence supporters, this move caused controversies in Taiwan's neighboring countries and regions, as well as the United States, since the alteration of passport covers might be a violation of immigration laws in other countries or regions and eventually cause the refusal of entry to holders of such passports. Singapore was the first country in Asia to deny entry to holders of altered passports on 29 November 2015, and deported three ROC nationals for "altering their travel documents". Among the three, two immediately removed the Republic of Taiwan stickers upon the further inquiries by the
Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers, but were eventually deported by Singapore to Taiwan. Another person had refused to remove such stickers and instead requested diplomatic representatives of Taiwan for consular protection, but was also deported in the end by ICA. The two Special Administrative Regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau, soon followed suit and refused to accept holders of such passports for entry. A spokesperson of
Hong Kong Immigration Department said that any person who "altered the travel document without lawful authority, or, who possess or use altered travel document", is a violation of
Immigration Ordinance and can be sentenced for up to 14 years in prison. The
American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) had, through diplomatic channels, notified the MOFA and confirmed that holders of such altered passports may be extensively questioned by the
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and be removed from the United States, and in March 2016, two travelers from Taiwan voluntarily removed Republic of Taiwan stickers because of the extensive questioning by CBP officers. The two travelers were eventually admitted into the U.S., while a CBP spokesperson warned that alterations of travel documents made by any person who is not authorized by the government of a country can render it invalid and will result the holder's refusal of admission to the U.S., and placing Republic of Taiwan stickers on passports is deemed to have altered the travel documents. A similar incident also occurred in Japan when a holder of altered passport was subject to secondary inspection. After being told that he would be deported, the man finally removed the Republic of Taiwan stickers and placed them on his T-shirt. Afterwards, he was allowed into Japan. Supporters of the stickers claimed that passports with Republic of Taiwan stickers were accepted in the United Arab Emirates and in Japan. In the latter case, the person who placed a Republic of Taiwan sticker on his passport claimed that he was simply trying to block the word "China" from his passport. Holders of such passports were also allowed entry into the Philippines, although a Bureau of Immigration (BI) spokesperson claimed that the passenger would normally be thoroughly inspected and called the incident "a serious matter", while also said that the government would launch an investigation. According to the BOCA, a total of 21 people had been denied entry by Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong since the end of 2015. Incidents were also reported in Japan and the U.S. of the use of Republic of Taiwan stickers. The MOFA called upon travelers to not alter the cover of their travel documents so that they would not be denied entry. From 2020, such problems have largely ceased to exist after the Taiwanese government issued new versions of passports that have reduced "
Republic of China" to small texts surrounding the national emblem, and highlighted "Taiwan" instead.
Dulles Airport image incident Page 5 of the redesigned second generation biometric passport, originally scheduled to roll out on 25 December 2017, was to feature an image of the iconic terminal 1 of
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, a project of Chinese-American architect
Tung-Yen Lin completed in 1979. On the same day, however, netizens on Facebook noticed that a picture of the
main terminal of
Washington Dulles International Airport was used on page 5 instead. Dulles's terminal, which was completed in 1962 and designed by renowned architect
Eero Saarinen, had greatly inspired Lin's design of terminal 1, hence the two buildings bear a high degree of similarity. The MOFA initially dismissed the reports in the morning of 26 December when a spokesperson of the ministry claimed that the photo was taken at Taoyuan Airport. Nearly 12 hours would pass before the MOFA acknowledged the error and stated that over 220,000 new passports were printed and delivered by the
Central Engraving and Printing Plant (CEPP) and 285 of them, which were already recalled, had been delivered to applicants by the time the mistake was discovered. BOCA chief Agnes Chen took responsibility and resigned on 27 December as the rollout of the new passport was halted, and applicants were issued first generation biometric passports instead. It was later reported that an extra 330,000 undelivered blank booklets were already printed by the CEPP, bringing the number of total affected booklets to more than 550,000, and destroying those would cost the government
NT$220 million. To reduce costs, the MOFA decided to print new stickers with the correct building which would cover page 5 and turn it into a travel warnings page from a blank amendment/endorsement page, a move that will cost a much smaller NT$16 million. In January 2018, the CEPP had also agreed to cover the NT$9.9 million manufacturing cost of the undelivered 330,000 booklets. The second generation biometric passport with stickers on page 5 was officially rolled out on 5 February 2018, more than a month behind the original schedule, to ameliorate the controversy. MOFA confirmed that it had notified immigration authorities of foreign countries so that holders of passports with the sticker would not encounter difficulties when travelling. Two months later in April 2018, the
Control Yuan had released a report on the incident, in which it placed the majority of the blame on the BOCA passport design group and group members' carelessness when researching images for the terminal. The report also highlighted the lack of communication between the BOCA and the CEPP, which failed to exercise due diligence on copyright issues and did not independently verify the correctness of the image due to the BOCA's status as a long-time customer. The report also strongly condemned the MOFA's initial dismissal of the incident. On 4 May 2018, the BOCA announced that it had estimated that the initial stock of the 550,000 booklets with the sticker would be depleted by mid-May, and the new version without the sticker on page 5 would then be issued. The sticker-less version would continue to feature page 5, which now bears the correct terminal building, as a travel warnings page rather than an amendment/endorsement page.
References to "Taiwan" The common English word "Taiwan" has been printed on the front of passports since 2003. This was added after an original proposal to add "Issued in Taiwan" was shelved after strong criticism from the mainland Chinese government the previous year. On 22 July 2020, the Legislative Yuan passed two resolutions put forth by the ruling
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that ask the executive branch of government to highlight "Taiwan" on passports and China Airlines' (CAL) aircraft. The resolutions require the
Executive Yuan to work out measures to emphasize the word for "Taiwan" written in Chinese () and in English on the passport cover. The
Kuomintang (KMT; Nationalist Party of China) has accused the DPP of revisionism and criticized President
Tsai Ing-wen's administration for missing an opportunity to advertise the nation to the world due to its focus on its own ideological and political considerations. The new passport design was officially announced in September 2020. == Passport gallery ==