A Beijing official’s claim that Chinese tourists were avoiding Kaohsiung because certain people in the city were aligning themselves with Tibetan and Uighur separatist forces demonstrated ignorance and “hurt the feelings of Taiwan’s people,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said yesterday.
Lai was referring to comments that China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Spokeswoman Fan Liqing (范麗青) made on Wednesday in response to media inquiries about the falling number of Chinese tourists visiting Kaohsiung.
Chinese tourists began cutting the city from their itinerary after the Dalai Lama visited southern Taiwan in the wake of Typhoon Morakot and the city government rejected demands to prevent a documentary about Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer from being screened at the Kaohsiung Film Festival.
“It is natural that Chinese tourists would express their displeasure, because there are forces in Kaohsiung City who align themselves with separatist forces supporting Tibetan and Uighur independence, which creates trouble and runs counter to the core interests of the mainland,” Fan said on Wednesday. “It hurts the feelings of their mainland compatriots.”
Fan’s remarks were the first time a Chinese official had referred to tourists boycotting Kaohsiung.
Fielding questions from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators during a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee, Lai said Fan was making “groundless accusations.”
“It shows she has little understanding of Taiwan’s democracy. She hurt the feelings of Taiwan’s people,” Lai said.
At a separate setting yesterday, the Presidential Office encouraged Chinese tourists to visit Kaohsiung, but stopped short of denouncing Beijing for its apparent boycott of the city.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said Kaohsiung residents were as friendly and hospitable as any other Taiwanese and that the city had many worthwhile attractions.
Wang said Chinese tourists should not miss the opportunity to visit Kaohsiung.
The Kaohsiung City Government, meanwhile, urged the central government to take note of the Chinese tourist boycott of the city.
Kaohsiung Information Office director-general Hsu Li-ming (許立明) said China was using tourists as a bargaining chip to achieve political goals.
Hsu said Taiwan considered democracy and human rights important, which was why the city government did not interfere with the organization of the Kaohsiung Film Festival, which opens today.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said that the city welcomed visitors from any country, “even tourists from China.”
“I hope other countries won’t impose restrictions on the places their tourists can visit just because [some countries] have different values,” Chen said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), who represents a constituency in the city, said both China and the Kaohsiung City Government were to blame for the boycott.
Huang said the city government had been “provocative” in its handling of the Dalai Lama’s visit and the screening of the documentary, The 10 Conditions of Love, by director Jeff Daniels.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
Also See: [ FILM ] Notes on a subversive festival
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS