Taiwan will immediately announce its opening to Chinese tourists as soon as Beijing gets rid of its political considerations in this regard and makes public its decision to allow Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan, a senior Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official said yesterday.
MAC Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) made the remarks while answering questions from lawmakers at a legislative committee.
According to Chen, Taiwan and China have reached agreement on the technical issues concerning the issue during five rounds of bilateral negotiations held during the tenure of former MAC chairman Joseph Wu (
Although a final agreement has yet to be announced, Chen went on, the two sides have made a great deal of progress.
"So long as Beijing can surmount its political concerns and clinch a pact with Taiwan, Taiwan will announce the opening at once," he said.
Responding to inquiries from lawmakers as to whether the Olympic torch could be allowed to pass through Taiwan on a "city-to-city" model, Chen replied that national sovereignty and dignity must not be compromised.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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