China yesterday opened its first office in Taiwan, celebrating the opening of the office of the quasi-official Cross-Strait Tourism Exchange Association with a gala dinner at the Grand Hotel in Taipei.
“The office has been established to promote exchanges and to boost travel across the Strait,” the association said in a statement.
China National Tourism Administration Commissioner Shao Qiwei (邵琪偉) attended the opening ceremony.
Fan Guishan (范貴山), chief secretary of the Cross-Strait Tourism Association, told Chinese media in Taipei this week that he was “proud and honored” to be assigned to his new post in charge of the association’s Taipei office.
“I had hoped to have the chance to visit Taiwan before, but I never dreamed that I would become the first director of the [tourism] office,” he was quoted by the China News Service as saying. “I am deeply moved by the Taiwanese people’s warmth.”
Fan and two aides came to Taipei in September last year to prepare for the opening of the office, which is located in the business district on Dunhua S Road (敦化南路).
On Tuesday, Taipei unveiled its new office in Beijing in the first swap of semi-official representative offices. The Tourism Bureau announced yesterday that Yang Ruey-tzhong (楊瑞宗), chief of the Third Directorate of Taiwan’s Executive, was chosen as the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association representative in Beijing, the first government official to be stationed in China.
At the opening ceremony in Beijing, Taiwanese tourism chief Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) hailed the move as a “new milestone” in the promotion of tourism exchanges between the two sides. Taiwanese authorities have said Taiwan saw higher tourism growth than anywhere else in Asia last year because of Chinese visitors.
The opening of the tourism offices comes as President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration aims to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China next month, saying it would boost growth and employment.
Critics say the planned pact jeopardizes Taiwan’s sovereignty and would make it too economically dependent on China.
George Tsai (蔡瑋), a political scientist at Taipei’s Chinese Culture University, said the opening of the tourism offices would boost ties with Beijing, but included some risks.
“This is a positive development in cross-strait ties and a step in the right direction, but political interference can happen at any time,” he said.
Ma’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) faces stiff competition from the Democratic Progressive Party in November’s municipal elections.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
RSS