The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China.
The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development and cooperation, she said.
The MAC said China’s 22 guidelines targeting Taiwanese who do not support Beijing’s efforts to take over the nation make China unsafe to visit.
Beijing on June 21 last year unveiled the 22 guidelines authorizing its courts to try “Taiwanese independence separatists” in absentia, with sentences including the death penalty.
The MAC said it rejected the expo organizer’s application for Chinese nationals’ participation for failing to demonstrate an essential purpose or guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect.
The MAC said it in February asked Beijing to resume tourism talks via appropriate channels, but its calls fell on deaf ears.
China should do more to ensure healthy exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, it said.
Separately, the Tourism Administration said that China is not a safe place for Taiwanese to visit.
The Chinese delegation had 300 officials, including the deputy heads of principal culture and tourism departments, a tourism industry insider who spoke on condition of anonymity said.
Taiwan’s refusal of Chinese officials’ attendance to an event as “soft” as a tourism expo is a sign of deteriorating relations between the two sides, they said.
The expo, first held in 2018, is no stranger to difficulties, but issues had always been solved, Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association chairwoman Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) said.
Chinese officials were unusually enthusiastic about attending the expo this year, she said, adding that the exclusion of the Chinese delegation is a source of “deep regret and frustration” for the association.
Additional reporting by CNA
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
PUBLIC SAFETY: The premier said that security would be tightened in transport hubs, while President Lai commended the public for their bravery The government is to deploy more police, including rapid response units, in crowded public areas to ensure a swift response to any threats, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after a knife attack killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei the previous day. Lai made the remarks following a briefing by the National Police Agency on the progress of the investigation, saying that the attack underscored the importance of cooperation in public security between the central and local governments. The attack unfolded in the early evening on Friday around Taipei Main Station’s M7 exit and later near the Taipei MRT’s Zhongshan
RSS