The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday denied a report that said that the council barred members of a Chinese pilgrimage group from visiting outlying islets of the Penghu archipelago due to "military security" concerns.
Nineteen Chinese pilgrims made the first-ever Fujian-Penghu pilgrimage by carrying a statue of the goddess Matsu (媽祖) from the Tianhou Temple (天后宮) in Quanzhou (泉州), Fujian Province, China to Penghu on Thursday. The group is currently staying in Penghu for religious activities and will be there until Aug. 5.
A local Chinese-language newspaper yesterday reported that MAC denied the group a visit to outlying islets of the archipelago due to "military security" concerns.
Aiming to clarify the report, Fu Don-cheng (
Instead, he said Penghu County had never applied to the MAC for permission for the group to visit the islets before it came.
Currently, religious activities across the Taiwan Strait must receive government approval in advance.
Showing the group's itinerary as proof, Fu said, "We approved the group's itinerary without changing a single scheduled item. But they never mentioned that they wanted to visit those islets."
The Penghu County government also issued a news release yesterday afternoon to deny the report.
It stated that it was a misunderstanding that the report said MAC banned Chinese nationals from going to islets of the archipelago. It added that the original plan was to let the group stay on Penghu's major island to conduct religious ceremonies.
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