Travelers in China asked to confirm family members’ military IDs: reports

By Chen Yu-fu and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer Add TT as Preferred Source Families of senior Taiwanese military officers traveling in China have reportedly been asked by local hotel staff to verify the ID numbers of their relatives in Taiwan, prompting concerns over the extent of Beijing’s data collection on Taiwanese military personnel. A Taiwanese service member wrote on social media that her parents took her son on a self-guided trip to China, where hotel staff asked them to verify the national ID numbers of her and her husband, saying the information was needed because a minor was checking in. She and her husband serve in the military and her husband is a senior officer, she said. A Chinese flag flutters in an undated photograph. Photo: Reuters After her mot