Taipei delegation warns Taiwanese over passport issues

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Macau advises Taiwanese citizens to not make any changes to their passports, according to a warning released by the office earlier this week.
Due to changes made to their passports, several residents of Taiwan have recently been refused an entry in the territory by Macau customs.
“After arriving in Macau, these residents saw their entrances being denied because the Macau immigration department believed that the passports did not correspond to the passports officially recognized by us,” the warning wrote.
Moreover, the office informed that the country’s current official identity documents have been sent to all countries and airlines around the world.
Alterations to passports will see their holders being rejected by other countries when applying for their visas, as well as preventing them from boarding flights.
In February, a Taiwanese woman was refused entry to Macau due to the fact that her passport was decorated with “Republic of Taiwan” stickers that advocated Taiwan’s independence.
In the same month, two Taiwanese travellers were rejected entry into Hong Kong for the same reason.
Hundreds of similar cases have already been reported this year.
Taiwanese citizens have not only been rejected from entering the SARs, but also other countries, such as Singapore.
Supporters of Taiwan’s independence movement launched a campaign in August 2015 which involved placing stickers on Taiwanese passport covers to advocate the use of the “Republic of Taiwan” instead of the Republic of China. JZ