TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An expert is questioning the legality and precedent for the EU set by Denmark's decision to require Taiwanese residents to be identified as Chinese on their official documents.
On Jan. 31, Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen fielded questions from lawmakers in the Danish Parliament regarding the change in the country's policy toward Taiwanese residents, per Berlingske. Outside the parliament, Taiwan Corner, an NGO supporting Taiwanese self-determination, organized a demonstration with around 25 Taiwanese and Danish participants.
During the session, Rasmussen said China had not contacted the ministry about the issue. Instead, he pointed to a new practice concerning what is written in the Danish Civil Personal Register (CPR).
The minister said it is up to individual authorities, not the foreign ministry, to decide what to include in Taiwanese documents. In some cases, it is possible to write "Taiwan" instead of "China" or fill in “Asia," he said.
He said the main issue is that Danish documents cannot say "Taiwan" if they refer to state recognition or nationality, as this could be interpreted as Denmark recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign state. That would violate Denmark's "one-China" policy, according to the minister.
However, lawmakers were dissatisfied with his explanation and asked why this change in practice had occurred. Rasmussen repeatedly replied, "It is not my responsibility."
Rasmussen claimed the Ministry of Digital Affairs is responsible for the CPR register and that the change had come from them.
Berlingske previously reported that a 2021 directive emphasized that Taiwan should no longer be used in the register. The digital ministry told the newspaper that this action was taken after new CPR legislation was passed in December of that year.
"Palestine" was allowed to be used as a birth registration place. This did not apply to Taiwan, and on Oct. 26, 2023, the ministry emphasized that “Taiwan does not have the status of an independent state and therefore cannot, according to the current practice of the CPR office, be registered as a country of birth.”
Instead, the ministry said China must be listed as the place of birth.
The ministry said individuals can include additional information about their place of birth in the CPR system. Taiwanese citizens must list their place of birth as China, but Taiwan can be written as a supplementary text.
Andreas Boje Forsby, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, wrote in an op-ed in Altinget that questioned the policy's legality.
During the parliament session, Rasmussen said there are inconsistent practices in several EU countries. However, Forsby called the minister's response "misleading" and "severely lacking."
While practices differ, Forsby said Luxembourg is the only other country that registers Taiwanese citizens as being from China. "Instead of supporting Asia's leading liberal democracy, Denmark risks setting a precedent among other EU countries with its near-unilateral approach," warned the researcher.
The expert said this policy “not only exposes Danish unilateralism in an extremely sensitive area with major political ramifications, but also a highly peculiar administrative practice that, at best, rests on a dubious legal basis.”
Forsby added there are reputational costs for the Danish frontline democracy, which, according to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, must "take on the task" of standing up to China and the other “dark forces.”
The researcher concluded, “Finally, it is a matter of a highly strange and apparently unlawful administrative practice, which is certainly not worthy of a liberal constitutional state.”
Taiwan Corner Chair Michael Danielsen told Berlingske that Taiwanese residents have initiated an effort for authorities to resume using Taiwan. Former Danish Parliament Speaker Pia Kjærsgaard, who also serves as the head of the Danish Parliament's Taiwan Friendship Association, told the newspaper that she is stunned by the policy and plans to summon relevant authorities.
