The launch of regular direct flights between China and Taiwan has been hailed as a symbol of progress and a boon to tourism, but industry workers are not all convinced.
Around 700 Chinese tourists arrived on the island to much ceremony over the weekend after taking the charter route, seen as ushering in a new start and the most visible sign yet in the thawing of cross-strait relations.
Tourism officials hope the visitors, besides promoting cordial exchanges, will bring in NT$60 billion (US$1.97 billion) annually, a big boost to local trade.
PHOTO: CNA
But some tour operators are skeptical.
“The agreements might look good on paper but I dare not think how much I can profit from that with a slow economy, rising inflation and high fuel prices,” said Wu Shih-chih, who rents yachts to tourists.
“I will not consider buying a new yacht or other equipment unless I can see a steady increase in business within six months,” said Wu, who has four boats taking visitors around Sun Moon Lake.
Others are concerned that Chinese tourists, sometimes seen as loud and ill mannered, could drive away other international travelers.
“We have fewer Japanese visitors since the government opened up to more mainlanders,” lamented a bus driver who works for a leading travel agency in Taipei.
“I am not thrilled at receiving the mainlanders because they can be proud and impolite, they think China is so important in the world,” said the driver, who asked not to be named.
Jack Lee, manager of a Taipei travel agency, said he often gets complaints from restaurants or shops that Chinese tour groups are too noisy or pay no attention to no-smoking signs.
“Some waiters also complained that Chinese customers throw bones or leftovers on the floor instead of leaving them on the plates or let cigarette ash fall everywhere,” Lee said, although most were willing to oblige when told.
Restaurateur Liu Ming-sung was blatant in expressing his dislike for Chinese tourists, putting up a sign reading “refusing Chinese communists” at his establishment in Kaohsiung City.
“I think President Ma [Ying-jeou (馬英九)] is wrong to see opening up to mainland investments and tourists as an elixir for Taiwan’s economy,” Liu said. “Let’s not forget that China is targeting Taiwan with thousands of missiles and they are still our enemies. Taiwan might be at risk under such rash moves.”
His sentiments mirror those of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), whose pro-independence rhetoric had angered Beijing.
There will be 36 round-trip flights across the Taiwan Strait weekly, operating from Friday to Monday between six Taiwanese airports and five in China.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts