'Taiwan Republic' Passport Stickers Cause a Stink in China

choi

Kerry Allen, 'Taiwan Republic' Passport Stickers Cause a Stink in China. BBC, Apr 8, 2016.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35998426

Note:
(a) So far, there is no Chinese translation for this report.  BBC Chinese has talked about it quite a while.

(b) Taiwan "Parliament decided on 6 April to lift the punishments for Taiwan passport holders who 'add, modify or delete markings' from their travel documents.
(i) In both federal and state governments of United States, a legislative branch makes laws. (Judiciary interprets laws, but only those laws in controversy, In daily life, an executive branch will also interpret law and enact regulations to enforce the laws. For example, federal government has federal law (officially, United States Code (USC)) and regulations (Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)) by various federal agencies. Massachusetts counterparts are Massachusetts General Laws and Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR). Judiciary has due deference to, but is not bound by, agency interpretations of laws. A legislative branch, when unhappy about agency interpretation, may revise or clarify laws.
(ii) It is similar in Taiwan. The Ma administration has interpreted laws governing passport that forbids alteration of passports, and decreed a sticker on the passport is alteration. Some Taiwanese advocates disagree. KMT lost the Parliament (many including me prefer to call it Legislature, whereas the official title is Legislative Yuan) in January, and the passport law was recently changed, clarifying that a sticker per se is not alteration.