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Beijing delaying Chinese tourist visits: MAC

Chinese tourists might not be able to visit Taiwan in the immediate future, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) chief said yesterday, because of the deadlock in negotiations caused by China's political manipulation.

"Both sides originally had good communications on this issue, but after the fourth round of talks, China started to insert political rhetoric into the negotiations, which Taiwan could not accept," council Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said.

He make the remarks at a forum hosted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus on the implementation of direct cross-strait transport links and the opening up of Taiwan to Chinese visitors.

Before Chen's predecessor Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) left to take up his new post in Washington, Wu had expressed confidence that Chinese tourists would soon be able to visit Taiwan.

Wu said at the time that the negotiations were making progress.

In recent days, however, both China and Taiwan have said that there is still a long way to go in arranging for Chinese citizens to visit Taiwan.

Facing questions from KMT legislators about the delay in approving Chinese tourism, Chen said the two sides have held five rounds of negotiations on the technical details of arranging such visits, the last one on March 15.

One example of Beijing's insertion of political rhetoric into the discussion, Chen said, was Jia Qinglin's (賈慶林) -- chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference -- comment last week that "Chinese nationals' visits to Taiwan are not considered travel from `nation to nation.'"

Jian made the remark last Saturday at an economic forum held by the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

"That was the most conspicuous example of the political framework that China wants to impose on us," Chen said.

He said he did not know why Beijing had done an about-face on trips to Taiwan by its nationals but the council would try to resolve the deadlock.
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