The Mainland Affairs Council and the Presidential Office have both stepped up and asked the PRC government to not endanger the status quo by including two pages of scenery from Taiwan, as well as a map of the PRC’s claimed territory showing dashed lines going around Taiwan’s eastern seaboard, in its new microchip passports. The dashed lines extend southward to cover a vast disputed area in the South China Sea, triggering protests from rival claimants including Vietnam, the Philippines and even India, which according to the China Times is retaliating by issuing visas to Chinese citizens with a map claiming the disputed regions of Aksai China and Arunachal.

The PRC simply stated that the passport maps reflected the nation’s established territorial claims, and that they do not target any single nation.

Taiwan manifests a split-personality disorder with regards to the people’s imagination of and expectations toward their nation’s international standing, versus the constitutional reality of the Republic of China’s national properties, including the government’s own definition of its relationship with the mainland.

Taiwan likes to say that “we are an independent, sovereign country,” vis-a-vis China. Whether you ask a pan-blue or a pan-green supporter, few people will delve into the constitutional framework of the ROC Pan-blue supporters may have voted for Ma, but many on the belief that the ROC, as it stands, is an independent country and that they can call the “status quo” as “independent.”

The imagination of the status quo in Taiwan is what prompted the government to lodge a protest against a territorial depiction that is actually very close to being consistent with its own constitution. Albeit with the exception of the massive additional enclave of Mongolia, the ROC’s official boundaries closely align with that of the PRC’s, including the massive loop carved out over the South China Sea. The PRC actually references the ROC’s act of drawing the area inside borders, in an official territorial map issued by the Guangdong provincial government in 1947 after the Ministry of the Interior claimed to have taken over the islands in 1946. The PRC praises the map as having established China’s claim in modern times.

Perhaps it is most illustrative to take a recent version of the Taiwan Compatriot Pass, the special document issued to ROC citizens for travel to mainland China, as a perfect example of how the popular psyche is ignoring the reality of the cross-strait legal framework. The olive-green cover document is a special permit for “residents of Taiwan” to travel to the mainland. On the first inside page, emblazoned over identity information, is a color-shifting depiction of a prominent symbol of the PRC, Tiananmen Square, and the pseudo-national flower of the PRC, the tree peony.

In the light of the passport controversy, Taiwan should and must prepare for future diplomatic jousts with the mainland to ensure the reduction of surprises and an opportunity to communicate preferences from our side and negotiate. Prior negotiation also affords the chance to lay down deterrence measures. Back channels are especially critical to have with potential adversaries. Even if negotiation fails, notifying the other side of countermeasures reduces the danger of escalation.

Taiwan should offer a measured response that contains concrete consequences for the PRC’s current move. Declarations by the government so far have been inadequate and nonthreatening. There is room for a firm gesture, perhaps like what India has done quickly in the wake of this dispute. Taiwan could emblazon the full ROC map on our passports, although this would lack in creativity as India has already taken a similar route by stamping their visas with the Indian map.

Another possible method could be moving protester areas closer to visiting mainland officials. Ma’s government has been criticized for being obsessive in its security sweeps for Chen Yunlin. Allowing Tibetan snow-mountain flags and Taiwan state flags to fly in the face of Chen can be a subtle jab in the belly.

Finally, China could also learn a lesson or two about how it has quickly attracted inconvenience for its citizens. According to the China Times, Vietnam has begun refusing to stamp PRC passports, and instead is placing its stamps on separate inserts attached to the passports. Even if the PRC has its own national imagination, it needs to learn that there are limits to what anyone can unilaterally take for granted.

(The China Post (Taiwan))
(Asia News Network)