【The China Post 每日精選】：一

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwanese travelers to the United States could be subject to "extreme vetting" as the U.S. government mulls extending stiff security measures to visitors from friendly countries, the Wall Street Journal has reported. 

Citing officials in the U.S. government, the report said foreign nationals planning to visit the U.S. could be forced to "reveal mobile phone contacts, social media passwords and financial data" and answer questions about their ideology.

The goal of revealing phone contacts is to "figure out who you are communicating with. What you can get on the average person's phone can be invaluable," the WSJ quoted a senior Department of Homeland Security official as saying.

The planned measures could even be applied to visitors from the 38 countries that participate in the U.S.'s visa-waiver program, including Taiwan, the report said, citing an unnamed senior official.

Countries in the visa waiver program are generally those that meet U.S. standards on data sharing and passport control and whose citizens have traditionally had very low visa refusal rates in the U.S.

"We are aware of the WSJ article. We will keep the public informed about changes affecting travelers to the United States," said Sonia Urbom, the spokesperson for the American Institute in Taiwan, which represents American interests in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had not been able to confirm the report and would release a statement as soon as it obtained any information on the matter.

The New York Times reported last month that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked consular officials at all U.S. embassies to step up security, but the rules did not apply to citizens of the 38 visa-waiver countries, the WSJ said.

It said the measures being considered could generate a major backlash, with human rights and civil liberties groups already objecting strenuously to comments by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly in February in which he suggested the U.S. would ask visitors for internet browsing information and passwords.

Kelly told a Senate committee in February that passwords were asked for "so we can see what they do on the internet ... If they don't want to give us that information, then they don't come."