Part of me HATES stuff like this:
The [Taiwanese] Ministry of Justice said yesterday the requirement for visitors from China to have their fingerprints taken upon arrival should be implemented as soon as possible.
[…]
At present, certain categories of Chinese citizens, including professionals and technicians, can visit Taiwan. The newly revised statute on cross-strait exchanges requires fingerprinting for them, but the requirement has not been implemented because some complementary measures have yet to be fleshed out.
As the government is preparing to open the door for ordinary Chinese citizens to sightsee in Taiwan, the officials said they will push for a further law revision to require fingerprinting for Chinese tourists as well as Chinese fishery workers aboard Taiwanese fishing boats and seized illegal Chinese immigrants.
Unfortunately however, I don’t see how Taiwan can afford to be laissez faire about a million prospective tourists from a hostile foreign country flooding onto its shores. Taiwan and China don’t share criminal dossiers, and the two countries have no extradition treaty. What a terrific opportunity for China’s criminal element!
But let’s leave concerns about crime aside. How would America have reacted if the Soviets had allowed 10 million of their citizens to visit PER YEAR? Sure, on the one hand, a lot of those tourists would have gone home knowing that America wasn’t the demon that the communist propaganda mill was making it out to be. But on the other hand, the possiblilities for breaches in national security might well have been intolerable. Here in our time, it’s safe to say that there are plenty of young men from Muslim countries that would absolutely LOVE to visit America. However, for some reason or another, they haven’t exactly been welcomed with open arms lately. Ever wonder why THAT is?
So yeah, the libertarian in me has pretty strong reservations about fingerprinting tourists, whatever their national origin. But the conservative in me, well, he can’t find it in himself to work up much outrage. Because THAT guy’s of the opinion that if somebody wants to be treated like a friend, then they’d better damn well be willing to act like one.
UPDATE (Apr 28/06): A KMT legislator suggested that other nationalities also be fingerprinted – in the interest of "impartiality".
Why stop there, Mr. Wizard? Maybe Taiwan’s armed forces should begin training for a possible Lithuanian invasion. In the interest of impartiality, of course.