Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) yesterday urged Taiwanese to think carefully before deciding to travel to China and to be vigilant about their personal safety when in China.
Chiu made the comment after the council confirmed a day earlier that a member of a Taiwanese tour group traveling in China had been detained for several days.
MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said that it was the first time a member of a tour group had been detained by Chinese authorities.
Photo: Reuters
The person was released several days after the five-day tour group had returned to Taiwan, Liang said.
The person is now back in Taiwan, the council said, adding that it is investigating the details of what happened.
Tour guides or tour leaders should immediately notify the Tourism Administration within 24 hours should tour members be detained, Liang said, citing regulations governing travel agencies.
The council has posted on platforms including Facebook to warn people to be vigilant about their personal safety. It also asks those traveling to China to register on its online platform.
The Tourism Administration said that it had been notified of the incident.
The person could have been detained because they worked in a “sensitive” profession before retirement, a source familiar with the matter said.
The council said that due to China’s state security and counterespionage laws, the number of Taiwanese being detained and investigated upon entry has increased.
The council reminded Taiwanese that such incidents are not limited to independent travelers, but could also happen to members of tour groups.
In a separate case, a user on the social media platform Threads on Wednesday said that he had traveled to Nanjing for an arts and books exhibition, but was taken away for questioning by Chinese police, and was forced to remove all his clothing for inspection.
He was released a few days later, the person wrote.
Asked about the incidents, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) warned Taiwanese to be wary of their safety when traveling to China, as its legal system is unclear and legal procedures are deficient.
A ban on tour travel to China starting on Saturday last week would be reviewed on a rolling basis, with changes being made depending on vital factors including safety and the quality of the travel experience, he said.
The government originally decided to only allow tour groups scheduled to leave for China before May 31 to go ahead, but Cho on Thursday last week said group tours organized before Saturday last week could proceed as planned.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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