Chinese visitors to Taiwan will not be allowed to gamble or engage in "pornographic activities," China's state news agency reported yesterday.
The warning was issued by the Cross-Strait Tourism Association, Xinhua news agency said. It followed the signing of breakthrough agreements on charter flights and tourism promotion between the two sides earlier this month.
“Travel agencies are not allowed to arrange gambling, pornographic and drug-related activities and other activities harming cross-strait relations,” Xinhua said.
It did not explain what it meant by “pornographic activities.”
Chinese travel agency managers have arrived in Taiwan on a fact-finding mission to inspect tourism infrastructure, such as hotels and transportation. They were to visit Sun Moon Lake yesterday, the Central News Agency reported.
The officials are visiting Taiwan for 10 days, the maximum allowed under the agreement that permits 3,000 Chinese tourists a day to visit Taiwan.
Taiwanese hoteliers, airlines and tour operators hope big-spending Chinese tourists will prove a shot in the arm to Taiwan’s travel sector, although limited capacity and continuing political differences between the two sides dictate limits on numbers and itineraries.
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
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FRESH LOOK: A committee would gather expert and public input on the themes and visual motifs that would appear on the notes, the central bank governor said The central bank has launched a comprehensive redesign of New Taiwan dollar banknotes to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures, improve accessibility and align the bills with global sustainability standards, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday. The overhaul would affect all five denominations — NT$100, NT$200, NT$500, NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 notes — but not coins, Yang said. It would be the first major update to the banknotes in 24 years, as the current series, introduced in 2001, has remained in circulation amid rapid advances in printing technology and security standards. “Updating the notes is essential to safeguard the integrity