Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: 交通部鐵道局
WITH FIVE COUNTRIES ending current preferential visa privileges for Taiwanese citizens this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has been questioned as to whether this is the result of Chinese pressure.
Namely, after a report from the National Audit Office that found that the current number of countries offering preferential visa privileges declined to 166 compared to 171 at the end of 2023, MOFA stated that there had been Chinese pressure on countries. MOFA did not provide explicit details, but raised the examples of Botswana and Columbia. MOFA raised that Botswana changed a drop-down menu to list “Taiwan” as “China”, resulting in that Taiwanese were no longer able to apply for e-visas. Likewise, MOFA stated that Columbia ended visa-free preferential treatment for Taiwan in spite of efforts by Taiwan to negotiate.
It is less clear how exactly the Chinese government pressured such countries, though this would not surprise in light of efforts by China to constrain Taiwan’s international space. At the same time, it is possible that MOFA was mainly seeking to defend itself, seeing as the National Audit criticized MOFA for not providing updates on the loss of such privileges.
In spite of Taiwan’s lack of international recognition, Taiwan’s passport is a relatively powerful one, ranking 35th in the world in 2024 citizenship consultancy firm Henley & Partners. Taiwan has seen increased passport power in past decades, in line with rising international influence by Taiwan. Ironically, the Taiwanese passport is actually more powerful than the Chinese passport according to many assessments, with Henley & Partners ranking China at 60.
It is less common for the relative strength of Taiwan’s passport to come up as an issue involving Chinese pressure. Past years, however, have seen pro-sovereignty groups call for a redesign of the Taiwanese passport to avoid confusion between the ROC and PRC passports, citing past cases in which Taiwanese nationals encountered issues because they were mistaken for PRC nationals. Such calls for a change in the passport design took place alongside calls for a redesign of the national ID to more accurately reflect contemporary Taiwan, including a design contest for a new national ID.
Photo credit: 毛貓大少爺/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 2.0
Likewise, during this time, there was also a sticker campaign to cover logos of the ROC on the cover of the Taiwanese passport to instead emphasize that the passport holder was from Taiwan. Eventually, the passport design was changed to one that increased the size of the word “Taiwan” and reduced focus on the ROC national emblem which, as a legacy of the KMT party-state, is also the KMT party logo.
The Chinese government has also sought to depict Taiwan as part of it through the Taiwan Compatriot Permit, a travel document used for Taiwanese who travel to China. The Taiwan Compatriot Permit is itself basically a passport for the purpose of travel to China. There has not been any push from China to try to coerce Taiwanese to travel internationally using Chinese documents, however.
Nevertheless, China has continued its attempts to pressure Taiwan and to shrink its international space by poaching diplomatic allies. This occurs whenever DPP presidential administrations hold office and has continued under the Lai administration.
Taiwan currently has 12 remaining diplomatic allies. During key national events, such as National Day, or presidential inaugurations, it is speculated as to whether China may seek to poach further allies. Yet Taiwan is larger than all of its diplomatic allies, whether this is assessed in terms of the size of the population or economy. Most Taiwanese do not really feel the impact of China’s poaching of diplomatic allies, unless they have business or personal ties with that ally.
It proves a new means of diplomatic pressure if China seeks to reduce the visa privileges of Taiwanese. If so, this is likely to have a substantive impact on Taiwanese traveling abroad than poaching diplomatic allies. It is to be seen if this is a new strategy of China going forward. Still, as with other attempts by China to pressure Taiwan, this is likely to contribute toward negative public views of China in Taiwanese society, with China seen as a bully.