The government has measures in place to deal with the sharp drop in the number of Chinese tourists in the wake of increasingly strained cross-strait relations, a Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official said on Thursday.
MAC Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) told a news conference that the government “has prepared for the worst” and has countermeasures to deal with the likely continued low number of Chinese tourists next year.
Chiu was responding to questions about the decline in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan this past year.
He reiterated that the government has not changed its position that Chinese tourists are welcome to visit Taiwan and remains committed to improving the quality of the local tourism sector.
Chiu also expressed regret at the politicization of cross-strait tourism.
In response to the decline in Chinese tourism numbers, he said the government is working to encourage local tourism by urging Taiwanese to take domestic holidays.
According to National Immigration Agency figures, Chinese visitor arrivals from Dec. 1 to Tuesday were 44 percent lower than in the same period last year, with the number of group tourists dropping by 50.4 percent year-on-year.
From January to Tuesday, Chinese tourist arrivals declined 18.5 percent year-on-year, while the number visiting in tour groups fell 29.9 percent, agency figures showed.
Cross-strait relations have cooled since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office on May 20, due mainly to China’s insistence that the so-called “1992 consensus” is the sole political foundation for the development of cross-strait exchanges and the Tsai administration’s refusal to accept that precondition.
The “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Beijing government that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Since May 20, the Tsai government has said on several occasions that it respects the 1992 cross-strait meeting as a historical fact and looks forward to promoting cross-strait ties based on the existing foundation, Chiu said.
“We hope mainland China will look squarely at our statements, try to understand and respond accordingly,” the deputy minister said.
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