The National Immigration Agency (NIA) is establishing security management measures to handle an anticipated increase in Chinese visitors to Taiwan next month, NIA Deputy Director-General Steve Wu (吳學燕) said yesterday.
The agency will spend an estimated NT$105 million (US$3.46 million) this year for extra manpower, infrastructure, equipment and software to handle applications, review and approve travel permits and expedite the entry and exit process at airports, Wu said.
The agency also plans to set up immigration counters to check travel documents at the eight airports in Taiwan that will serve as gateways for weekend charter flights to China, he said.
The airports to be used for cross-strait flights are Taipei’s Songshan Airport and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in northern Taiwan, Taichung Airport in central Taiwan, Kaohsiung International Airport in southern Taiwan, Hualien and Taitung airports in eastern Taiwan and Kinmen and Makung airports in the Taiwan Strait.
In an effort to accelerate the application process of Chinese tour groups visiting Taiwan, the government will also set up service centers in the cities of Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Hualien.
Measures are in place to screen tourists to diminish the possibility that they will abscond after entering Taiwan. Beijing will require applicants to prove they have a Chinese citizen ID and at least NT$200,000 in assets and do not have a criminal record or a record of overstaying visas before they can get travel permits.
Also, Chinese tourists must arrive and leave in groups, Wu said.
Taiwanese immigration officers will take charge of checking documents, Wu said, adding that the agency has organized a series of workshops and training sessions.
Chinese tourists are expected to visit in greater numbers after representatives of Taiwan and China officially sealed agreements last Friday in Beijing for the July 4 launch of weekend cross-strait charter flights and allowing more Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan from July 18.
The number of Chinese visiting Taiwan will be capped at 3,000 per day in the initial stage.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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