Lawmakers yesterday engaged in a feverish debate during a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee over whether the ban on tour group travel to China should be lifted. The debate followed remarks by Shanghai Vice Mayor Hua Yuan (華源) at the Taipei-Shanghai Twin-City Forum in Taipei on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications was invited to give a report and discuss the possible reopening of cross-strait tourism.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators argued in favor of lifting the ban on group tours to China and providing reciprocal access to group tours from China, while Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators accused the KMT and TPP of being scared to stand up to China on this issue.
Photo: Tsai Yun-rong, Taipei Times
If the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were to release definitive plans, Taiwan would begin serious discussions and enquiries into lifting the ban, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday.
However, it must first ensure the safety of Taiwanese citizens, due to previous incidents of Taiwanese being detained or having phones searched in China, Chen said.
Taiwan allows independent tourists to travel from Taiwan to China. It temporarily relaxed restrictions on group travel from March to May, before banning them again in June. However, those who had already booked group trips before June were permitted to go ahead with their travel plans, with 230,000 having traveled as of October, Chen said.
Meanwhile, China has upheld restrictions on independent and group travel of Chinese citizens to Taiwan, except for those who have applied for official permission. Although residents from Fujian Province have been granted permission to travel in tour groups via ferry to the Taiwanese islands of Kinmen and Matsu, visitors have remained low, with only 32,000 Chinese visitors to Taiwan recorded through October, Chen added.
The national tourism industry has expressed hope that the group travel ban to China would be lifted. However, the number of travelers from Taiwan to China compared with from China to Taiwan clearly shows who ought to make the first move, DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
Democratic countries such as Taiwan are ruled by law, whereas China is not, so China can enforce arbitrary travel bans for political reasons whenever it wants, causing losses to Taiwan’s domestic tourism industry, DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said.
The Tourism Administration should warn operators that the Chinese tourism business is filled with risks, and they should limit investment and resources to prevent losses, Tsai said.
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