Taiwan's National Association of Travel Agents ROC, has been entrusted by the government to negotiate with Beijing on Chinese tourism to Taiwan, it was announced yesterday.
The association also denied a local Chinese-language newspaper report which claimed that its representatives will hold talks with China in Macau later next month.
"The report was far from the truth," according to a statement issued by the association yesterday.
According to a local Chinese-language newspaper report yesterday, Taiwan and China will discuss a framework for talks on Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan in Macau on Aug 27.
"The two sides have tentatively agreed to hold the first round of talks on Aug. 27 in Macau," the United Daily News quoted an unidentified source as saying.
China has agreed to deal with Tseng Sheng-hai (
China has demanded the association change its name to the "Association of Travel Agents of Taiwan," but the Mainland Affairs Council has refused to do so, saying the name would indicate that Taiwan is a province of China.
The council said on Friday it will hold a background briefing today on issues concerning Chinese tourists.
In official contacts, Beijing and Taipei have already reached an agreement on the logistics of Chinese tourism. These include the deportation of Chinese tourists who stay on after their visa have expired, penalizing Chinese travel agencies if members of tour groups they arranged stay behind to work illegally in Taiwan, according to the Untied Daily News.
"Once the political obstacle has been removed, the two sides can launch talks in Macau on Aug. 27," the unnamed source said.
Since the 1980s, China has been calling on Taiwan to lift the ban on direct air and sea links and for Chinese tourists to be allowed to visit Taiwan -- a move regarded as a step toward eventual unification.
Taiwan has previously rejected the idea based on security concerns, but recently the government said it could hold tourism talks with China if Beijing showed respect by referring to the negotiations as "official talks."
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