Taiwan redesigns its passport, shrinks the words ‘Republic of China’

In a huge step, Taiwan has redesigned its passport wherein it has shrunk the words ‘Republic of China’ to an unnoticeable extent. The new passports will be made available to the citizens from January 11, 2021. The big news here is the new cover design will have the country’s name highlighted, while the words ‘Republic of China’ will be in smaller font.

Asserting their freedom, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had shared this news months back amid China’s growing aggressiveness. The design was announced in the month of September and implementation is due next year. As per an official statement, the intention behind the new design is to make identifying the citizenship of Taiwan passport holders easier on the global level. A statement released by Taiwan MOFA reads, “The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in January this year prompted the Legislative Yuan to pass a resolution in late July aimed at preventing holders of the Republic of China (Taiwan) passport from being mistaken for citizens of the People’s Republic of China, which has impacted their rights and caused inconvenience when travelling abroad.”
Citizens will be issued new passports wherein the font size of the word ‘Taiwan’ has been enlarged. The country’s name has been strategically placed right above the word ‘passport’. The whole thing will look and read as ‘TAIWAN PASSPORT’.

The statement further said that the resolution was called to make the country’s name prominent on the passport to ensure the dignity of Taiwan’s citizens and to make their international travel safe and convenient.