Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Tuesday urged the Danish government to correct its description of Taiwan on residence permits that implies Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China (PRC) or face retaliatory measures.
MOFA spokesman Hsiao Kuangwei (蕭光偉) said Taiwan "condemned" the Danish government's listing of the nationality of Taiwanese citizens on residence permits as "China."
The change is not consistent with the longstanding foreign policy of European Union member states nor with the principles of democracy and human rights, he said.
Taipei has repeatedly issued protests to Copenhagen over the years, urging it to correct the designation, but has received no response so far, Hsiao said during a weekly MOFA news briefing.
He added that if the Danish government continued to ignore Taiwan's request due to pressure from the PRC, Taipei would launch retaliatory measures, but he did not say what those measures might be.
Commenting on the same issue last week, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said Taiwan was considering adjusting the privileges and immunities currently granted to staff at the Danish representative office in Taiwan, also without elaborating.
He added that Taiwan has asked other friendly nations around the world to jointly urge Copenhagen to make the necessary changes as soon as possible.
Hsiao's comments on Tuesday came days after Danish-language newspaper Berlingske reported that the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) had responded to complaints from Taiwanese residents in Denmark.
The agency said that listing their children's nationality as "China" was not a mistake, but reflected the Danish government's position that it does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country and considers it "under China."
According to Berlingske, Denmark is the only European Union member state that lists Taiwanese nationality as China rather than Taiwan.
The report also quoted Andreas B. Forsby, a senior researcher in the Foreign Policy and Diplomacy unit at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), as saying that Denmark's "one China" policy recognizes the PRC as the sole legal government of China but does not take a position on Taiwan's status.
Michael Danielsen, chairman of Taiwan Corner Denmark, was cited by the paper as saying that Copenhagen now appeared to be leaning toward Beijing's position by listing Taiwanese as being Chinese in official documents.
Meanwhile, Taiwan's representative to Denmark, Robin Cheng (鄭榮俊), told CNA on Monday that his office has repeatedly asked the Danish government to correct the designation since 2024, but to no avail.
Cheng said it was his understanding that Denmark's foreign ministry has not changed its long-held policy on Taiwan, and has never publicly stated that Taiwan belongs to the PRC.
There have been, however, apparent inconsistencies between different branches of government in how the policy is implemented, he said.
"We will continue to ask the Danish side to correct the designation of Taiwan," he said.
