Chinese passports won’t be stamped with PH visas
THE PHILIPPINES will not stamp visas on the controversial Chinese electronic passport which bears a controversial map declaring disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) as Chinese territory.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said Philippine visas will instead be stamped on a separate visa application form, a decision reached by interagency consultations initiated last week after China’s release of its controversial new e-passport.
The DFA said it was “preparing for an early implementation” of the new procedure.
The Philippines made the decision not to stamp the new Chinese passports even as Chinese tourists and businessmen are known to be among the country’s top visitors.
The Philippines and several other Asian countries have objected that the map printed in the new Chinese passports showed disputed maritime regions as belonging to China. (
Excessive declaration
The delineation includes territories within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, including the Kalayaan group in the Spratlys archipelago off Palawan and the Panatag Shoal off Zambales.
Philippine officials have scoffed at the map, which is based on China’s so-called nine-dash line claim to the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) region, calling it “an excessive declaration” of China’s maritime territory.
The map shows an outline of China and includes Taiwan and the sea, hemmed in by dashes. Chinese official maps have long shown the same, but this is viewed as particularly provocative since it requires other nations to stamp it.
The Philippines and others have protested the release of the new Chinese passports as it tended to force contending parties to recognize China’s nine-dash line claim to disputed territories upon stamping the travel document with entry visas into their countries.
The DFA said the decision not to stamp visas on the Chinese e-passports is meant to avoid exactly that.
“This action is being undertaken to avoid the Philippines being misconstrued as legitimizing the nine-dash line every time a Philippine visa is stamped on such Chinese e-passport,” it said.
“Through this action, the Philippines reinforces its protest against China’s excessive claim over almost the entire South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea. The Philippines views the expansive 9-dash claim as inconsistent with international law, specifically Unclos (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea),” it said.
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said the Philippines should reject the Chinese e-passports and refuse entry to anyone carrying them.
Sovereign right
“If we don’t like what is printed in their passport, we have the sovereign right to refuse to allow the person to enter,” she told reporters.
“As long as you’re within Philippine land, sea or air territory, you have to comply with what the Philippines wants. That is the meaning of sovereignty in international relations. If we don’t like what is printed in a passport, we can make the person go away from our territory without having to explain why,” Santiago said.
Such an act by the Philippines couldn’t be characterized as a provocation since it is only acting within its rights, she said.
“We are not the provocateur. They are. They are deliberately infringing on our sovereignty when they do that,” said Santiago.
But Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said the Chinese e-passport was no big deal.
“If they like to have a passport like that, so what? We can also create our passport. We can include the entire Pacific area, include some of their areas there, so it doesn’t matter,” he said.
In Beijing, China said people should not read too much into the placement of a new map in its passports that depicts claims to disputed maritime territory.
“The aim of China’s new electronic passports is to strengthen its technological abilities and make it convenient for Chinese citizens to enter or leave the country,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said.