Taiwanese can visit China “without the slightest worry,” the Chinese government said, condemning Taiwan’s decision to raise its travel alert level after Beijing issued threatening measures targeting Taiwanese independence advocates.
Last week, Beijing published judicial guidelines on criminal punishments for supporters of Taiwanese independence, including the death penalty for “particularly serious” cases involving “diehard” advocates.
It vowed to pursue people it views as “Taiwan separatists” wherever they might be, though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
In response, the government on Thursday urged the public to avoid “unnecessary travel” to mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
It also raised its travel warning for China to the second-highest “orange” level.
However, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) in a statement late on Friday said that the new judicial directives “are aimed solely at the very small number of supporters of ‘Taiwan independence,’ who are engaged in malicious acts and utterances.”
“The vast majority of Taiwan compatriots involved in cross-strait exchanges and cooperation do not need to have the slightest worry when they come to or leave mainland China,” she said.
“They can arrive in high spirits and leave fully satisfied with their stay,” she added.
Beijing has not conducted top-level communications with Taipei since 2016, when former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office.
China has not hidden its dislike of President William Lai (賴清德), whom it views as a “separatist,” staging two days of war games after he took office last month and regularly sending fighter jets and warships to operate around Taiwan.
Lai rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims and says only Taiwanese can decide their future.
“The DPP authorities have fabricated excuses to deceive the people on the island” and “incite confrontation and opposition,” Zhu said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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