Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) members yesterday condemned China for manipulating the tourism market in a bid to coerce Taiwan ahead of a planned protest by travel operators today, saying the tourism industry needs to reform and break away from overdependence on China.
China has restricted tourism to Taiwan as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration refuses to accept the so-called “1992 consensus,” which is part of China’s attempt to annex Taiwan by economic coercion, TSU Youth Department deputy director Hsu Ya-chi (許亞齊) said.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“Taiwan’s tourism industry, as well as other industries, has to diversify its client base and seek international customers to escape overreliance on the Chinese market and hostile political manipulation,” Hsu said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) China-friendly administration focused the nation’s economy on the Chinese market, and the tourism industry has ended up in a vicious cycle of depleting limited tourism resources to court low-spending Chinese tourist groups, former TSU legislator Chou Ni-an (周倪安) said.
The number of inbound tourists has grown by about 1 million every year and it reached 10 million last year, while Chinese tourists increased from 22.95 percent of all foreign travelers in 2008 to 53.23 percent last year, Chou said.
However, the average daily consumption per tourist has dropped alongside the increase in Chinese tourists, going down from US$224.07 in 2013 to US$207.87 last year.
“Far from benefiting from increased Chinese tourist numbers, the nation is entrenched in a tourism pattern that offers low-quality and low-profit package tours to Chinese visitors,” Chou said.
Travel agencies funded with Chinese capital that provide one-stop services should be barred from receiving relief loans from the Executive Yuan, she said.
The Executive Yuan on Thursday last week approved a plan to extend NT$30 billion (US$948.45 million) in loans to the tourism sector amid the drastic decrease in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan.
Tourism has to be developed in line with national security, environmental capacity and service quality to prevent a flood of low-quality tour groups overwhelming the nation’s capacity, she said.
“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has threatened to cease all interaction with Taiwan if the DPP administration does not accept the ‘1992 consensus.’ For the first time the TSU supports the CCP. We called on the CCP to keep its word and cease the interaction as soon as possible,” TSU youth director Chang Chao-lin (張兆林) said.
“What the nation needs least is Chinese tourists being used to manipulate Taiwan’s economy and independence,” Chang said, in response to Minister Without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen’s (張景森) remark that Chinese visitors are Taiwan’s “most needed friends.”
Although travel firms are understandably distressed, they have to transform their business models to become more sustainable and profitable to prevent being paralyzed by Chinese manipulation, Chang said.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS