China tourist pretends to be from Taiwan with oversized passport cover while holidaying in Japan

A rather odd phenomenon was reported in Taiwan last week.

Mirror Media highlighted the incident in a news segment.

There was backlash from Taiwanese netizens after a post showing what appears to be a Chinese national placing the Chinese passport inside a Taiwanese passport cover.

The same segment highlighted that the Japanese passport cover might have also been used.

A highlighted comment urged Chinese citizens not to use Taiwanese passport covers, drawing flak from both sides.

Chinese nationals felt it was unpatriotic to hide the country's name, while other netizens from other areas did not want their passports used seemingly as subterfuge.

According to ETtoday, the kerfuffle started when a Chinese netizen said he was using the cover when travelling to Japan to avoid any unpleasant encounters.

Tensions between Japan and China have been strained recently following comments by Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi about the Taiwan Strait and China's strong response, including advising its citizens not to travel to Japan.

Image from Threads