MAC denies pact on Strait tourism

A Mainland Affairs Council official yesterday denied a report that a cross-strait tourism agreement was reached at a closed-door meeting in Shanghai last Friday.

"We never authorized any individual or civil organization to have talks with China over such an issue," said Chen Ming-tong (陳明通), vice chairman of the council.

A Chinese-language newspaper yesterday reported that travel agency representatives secretly met for two hours in Shanghai with Sun Gang (孫綱), the deputy director of China's National Tourism Administration, while attending a travel fair in that city.

The newspaper story said Sun guaranteed that Beijing would add Taiwan to its list of overseas tourism sites as long as Taiwanese authorities eased restrictions on Chinese tourists.

The report said the agreement would take effect at the beginning of next year.

However, Chen said the government has not authorized any individual or organization to have talks with China over the issue.

He said opening Taiwan up to Chinese sightseers will require government-to-government negotiation.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Travel Agent Association chairman Johnson Tseng (曾盛海), told the Taipei Times yesterday that he did meet with Sun for an hour in Shanghai, but he denied they had talked about lifting Taipei's ban on Chinese tourists or China listing Taiwan as an approved tour site.

"We talked about cross-strait college students exchanges during holidays. I was not authorized by the government and it is impossible for me to reach such an agreement with China," Tseng said.