The Travel Agent Association (TAA) yesterday criticized the government for barring travel agents from giving Chinese tourists entry permits through airlines’ “OK Board” service.
The “OK Board” service is an expedient measure practiced by airlines around the world.
If a telecoms carrier confirms that a certain passenger has secured an entry permit or visa to a given country, but will not be able to receive it before departure, the passenger will be allowed to board the aircraft without the travel permit.
The passenger will then receive an entry permit upon arrival at his or her destination airport.
Tourists normally receive their visas while still in their home countries.
Because of the special situation between China and Taiwan, Taiwanese travel agents must apply for entry permits on behalf of their Chinese clients.
The travel agents are responsible for sending the entry permits via express mail to their customers in China.
TAA secretary-general Roget Hsu (許高慶) said that travel agents have to be able to use the “OK Board” service to ensure that customers actually receive entry permits before checking in at immigration, adding that in one case a package containing entry permits for Chinese tourists was sent to Paris instead of China.
Hsu said in the past, airlines provided the “OK Board” service to travel agents free of charge. With the increase in Chinese tourists, airlines wanted to charge travel agents a processing fee for distributing entry permits. The TAA then proposed that it could have a special service desk in restricted areas of airports to distribute entry permits to Chinese tourists upon their arrival, he said.
When asked to comment, Civil Aeronautics Administration Director-General Lee Lung-wen (李龍文) said the “OK Board service” was not a regular measure, adding that it was not appropriate for travel agents to provide the service at an airport.
National Immigration Agency (NIA) Director-General Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功) said at a separate setting yesterday that “OK Board” services should only be a backup measure to be used in case of an emergency, and not a regular way to enter a country.
Hsieh said the “OK Board” was often granted to Taiwanese nationals who had lost their passport abroad, or foreigners who need to enter the country in an emergency.
“It’s regrettable that since last year, as many as eight tour groups from China have entered the country on the ‘OK Board’ provision,” Hsieh said. “The number is, I have to say, a bit too high.”
Citing “concerns over national security,” Hsieh said the NIA also disagreed with the proposal to set up counters inside restricted areas at airports to process entry permits for Chinese tourists.
He said the NIA would continue to negotiate with other government agencies and the travel industry to come up with a more appropriate solution to the issue.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift