A tour package proposed by a state-run travel agency in China to parts of Taiwan governed by the “pan-blue” alliance, headed by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), has drawn mixed responses.
Beijing-based China International Services this month launched the Taiwan Affairs Office-endorsed “Tour to ‘blue’ counties and cities” in Taiwan, the Chinese-language Apple Daily newspaper reported yesterday.
The six-day tour, priced at less than NT$20,000 (US$638), was proposed in line with Beijing’s call to visit pan-blue-governed counties and cities, the report said.
The heads of the cities and counties welcomed the idea, but Ting Yun-kung (丁允恭), spokesman of the “pan-green” Kaohsiung City Government, said Taiwan is a colorful place and that “it is a pity for people to discover only one color,” the Apple Daily said.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) is considered a heavyweight in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which leads the pro-Taiwan independence “pan-green” camp.
Exchanges between Taiwan and China have cooled in many sectors, including tourism, since President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inauguration on May 20.
The number of Chinese visiting Taiwan fell 32 percent in August from a year earlier, Tourism Bureau data showed, a decline some say has been engineered by the Chinese government.
Last month, a delegation of six KMT and two independent officials visited China to promote Taiwan’s agricultural produce and tourism. They were reportedly warmly received by Chinese authorities.
Asked about the controversial tour package, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), a KMT member, said he hoped Chinese tourists would continue to visit Taiwan and that Taiwan would maintain cooperative relations with China in agricultural and industrial sectors.
“It is just that we are a window and [we] hope more tourists will come to Taiwan,” Chu said.
Some criticized the tour package as China’s attempt to divide Taiwan, but Chu shrugged off the idea, saying that people open their arms to tourists in the same way as they welcome cross-strait industrial and agricultural cooperation.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said he doubted Beijing’s strategy is practical and feasible since the nation’s international airports in Taoyuan, Taichung and Kaohsiung are under pan-green administration.
“I do not believe Chinese tourists can just parachute into Taiwan,” Ko said, adding that the strategy would prove to be of no avail.
Ko said that Taipei would still try to attract Chinese visitors and it has plans to woo visitors from the ASEAN and Muslim countries.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
RSS