Taiwan warns citizens against obtaining Chinese ID cards

The government of Taiwan is warning its citizens against applying for documents in Mainland China, fearing that the country could use the citizen status to bolster its claims on the self-sovereign island.

Last week, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te cautioned against China’s alleged efforts to tempt citizens into applying for Chinese ID cards and residency permits, Radio Taiwan International reports.

The president also called on government agencies to raise public awareness about the consequences of applying for Mainland Chinese documents. According to local regulations, citizens who receive a Chinese ID will have their Taiwanese household registration revoked.

Following the President’s warnings, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) announced that almost 670 Taiwanese have had their citizenship revoked for holding Chinese ID cards in the past 10 years. The actual number of cardholders, however, could be more than 100,000.

The agency added that Beijing’s strategy is to turn more Taiwanese people into Chinese nationals, giving a pretext for a possible future military invasion.

Tensions between the two sides have been rising in recent years due to China’s claims over self-governed Taiwan. Beijing believes the island is a breakaway province that should be reunited with the country. In response to the Taiwanese government’s resistance to unification, Chinese President Xi Jinping has been holding military drills and sending fighter jets near the island.

China is attempting to attract Taiwanese citizens with residence permits, according to the Mainland Affairs Council. Taiwanese officials claim that Chinese IDs are often the next step with local governments promoting the identification as a pathway to better loan conditions and buying property. More than 217,000 Taiwanese worked in China as of 2023, according to the Financial Times.

The Chinese ID controversy kicked off in December after Lin Chin-cheng, head of the Taiwan Youth Entrepreneurship Park in Quanzhou, China, said in an interview with a YouTuber that hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese had already obtained a Chinese ID card. The claim was not confirmed.

Taiwan’s fears over Chinese ID cards could stem from Ukraine’s experience with Russia, which started issuing passports to eastern Ukrainians after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Article Topics

China  |  identity document  |  identity management  |  national security  |  Taiwan