People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.”
The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei.
“Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said.
Photo: Reuters
Beijing has implemented or amended national security laws for mainland China, and enforced new national security laws in Hong Kong and Macau, he said.
“We have been urging Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede cross-strait exchanges. Unfortunately, Beijing continues to implement measures that damage cross-strait relations and has been doing so with intensifying efforts,” he said. “The guidelines it issued on June 21 would only increase the personal safety risks of Taiwanese traveling in China.”
If a trip is necessary, people should avoid discussing sensitive political issues; taking pictures of seaports, airports and military facilities; and carrying books on politics, history or religion while there, Liang said.
Photo: David Chang, EPA-EFE
The council on its Web site has a list of behaviors that could potentially cause Taiwanese to contravene national security laws while they are in China, Hong Kong or Macau, he said, adding that they should read them and register their travel plans with the council before departing.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications in a statement said that it respects the council’s decision.
“Our position that cross-strait tourism exchanges should proceed in a healthy, progressive and orderly manner remains unchanged,” the ministry said.
The travel alert is a recommendation to travel agencies and the public, who can decide for themselves whether they should proceed, the ministry said.
Tour cancelations should be handled based on standardized contracts between travel agencies and their customers, the ministry said, adding that disputes could be arbitrated by the Travel Quality Assurance Association.
As some tours were formed before the government reintroduced a group tour ban for China, Minister of Transportation and Communications Li Meng-yen (李孟諺) asked the Tourism Administration to closely monitor the status of tour groups in China, and remind people to assess the risks and beware of their safety, the ministry said.
The travel alert to China was “red” during the COVID-19 pandemic and was downgraded to “yellow” in October 2022 when the pandemic eased, Liang said.
The government was planning to further downgrade the alert to “gray” in July last year, but maintained the “yellow” alert after Beijing proposed an amendment to an anti-espionage law and implemented a new National Security Law in Hong Kong.
“The government has an obligation to remind people that there are indeed risks traveling to China following the announcement of guidelines to punish ‘separatists,’” Liang said. “We cannot ignore the situation and pretend as if nothing happened, or we would be accused of being negligent.”
The travel advisory is neither a mandatory rule nor a retaliatory measure against Beijing’s anti-separatist guidelines, he said.
The US in July last year elevated its travel alert to China and Macau to Level 3 after Beijing implemented amendments to its Foreign Relations Law and Anti-Espionage Law.
In April, the US travel alert was extended to cover Hong Kong, Liang said.
The Level 3 alert says that people should reconsider travel to China, Hong Kong and Macau “due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws” and “risks of local detention.”
Concern for the safety of Taiwanese traveling in China is not unfounded, Liang said.
Gusa Press (八旗文化) editor-in-chief Li Yanhe (李延賀), better known by his pen name, Fucha (富察), is under investigation for alleged infringement of the “Anti-Secession” Law, as is Taiwanese National Party cofounder Yang Chih-yuan (楊智淵), Liang said.
“It is possible that none of them would imagine they would be arrested and detained for breaching the ‘Anti-Secession’ Law,” he said. “The point is that they were arrested because of what they did outside of China, not what they did in China.”
The council has also received reports about retired Taiwanese police and military personnel being interrogated and detained upon arrival, he said.
China has extradition agreements with about 60 countries, with most of them stating that no political prisoners would be extradited, Liang said, adding that extradition would only occur if a person is found guilty in both countries.
“We think none of the developed countries would extradite Taiwanese to be tried in China, but some countries might still comply with their agreements with China,” he said.
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