The government’s goal of attracting 10 million international travelers to Taiwan this year remains unchanged, new Minister of Transportation and Communications Lee Men-yen (李孟諺) said yesterday.
Lee, who served as the Executive Yuan secretary-general under former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration, had his first meeting with reporters after being sworn in on Monday.
He was asked what the ministry would do after a group tour ban for Taiwanese going to China is to be reintroduced on Saturday next week, and whether it would readjust the goal it set for international visitors if cross-strait relations do not improve.
Photo: CNA
“We are not planning to revise the goal,” Lee said. “About 2 million international visitors arrived during the first quarter this year. Judging from this rate of growth, there might still be some ways to go before we reach the goal.”
“However, the Tourism Administration is working hard and has proposed strategies, so we will maintain this goal,” Lee said.
The Tourism Administration previously aimed to attract 12 million international visitors this year, including 2 million Chinese tourists.
In November last year, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications unilaterally announced that the ban on group tours to China would be lifted on March 1, adding that China should reciprocate by allowing Chinese tour groups to visit Taiwan.
However, after President William Lai (賴清德) was elected in January, Nauru severed ties with Taipei and established diplomatic relations with China. In February, China unilaterally activated the use of its self-designated M503, W122 and W123 flight routes.
Taipei announced that the group tour ban would be implemented again next month after it did not receive a response from China.
Last month, Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry services between Fujian’s Pingtan County and Taiwan proper resume.
Taiwan allows independent travelers to visit China, while China bans independent travelers and group tours from going to Taiwan, Lee said.
A monthly average of 180,000 to 200,000 Taiwanese traveled to China in January and February, while an average of 210,000 to 230,000 Taiwanese have headed to China since March, he said, citing immigration data.
“We will soon have a cross-departmental meeting on cross-strait tours, during which officials could discuss whether the group tour ban should be fully or partially lifted,” he said. “While we hope that travel agencies could profit more from an increase in travel business, we also have to ensure that cross-strait relations are equal and balanced.”
China appeared to have misinterpreted the meaning of “equality of cross-strait tourism,” Lee said.
“If we allow individuals and group travelers to visit China, then Beijing should do the same. That is what we meant by being equal. They politicized this by saying that we are advocating a two-state theory,” he said.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
RSS