The General Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of China (ROCCOC) yesterday said the Taiwanese government should “ease or lift” restrictions in response to a slate of tourism and commercial measures announced by China.
Beijing’s list of 10 Taiwan-focused measures was announced on April 12, two days after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing.
They include the resumption of individual travel by residents of Shanghai and Fujian to Taiwan, the “full normalization” of direct cross-strait passenger flights and expanded access for Taiwanese agricultural, fishery and food products to the Chinese market.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
Amid calls from the Mainland Affairs Council for industry “not to echo the Chinese Communist Party or allow themselves to be used as tools to pressure the government,” ROCCOC chairman Paul Hsu (許舒博) said none of the chamber’s members had been pressured by China.
He said that the Taiwanese government “should not use any means to prevent us from speaking,” saying the chamber had received phone calls ahead of yesterday’s event.
Accompanied by representatives of the tourist and food sectors at a press conference in Taipei, Hsu said the government should ease restrictions, adding that the move would benefit businesses and the public.
He asked Chinese authorities not to abruptly suspend the new measures for “political reasons.”
Stephanie Chang (張琄菡), vice president of the Hotel Association of the Republic of China, said reopening to Chinese tourists could raise Taiwan’s hotel occupancy rate, which is at about 50 percent, by at least 15 percentage points.
She said that about 3 million Chinese visitors arrived annually when cross-strait tourism, largely suspended, was at its peak.
Later yesterday, the KMT echoed the ROCCOC’s entreaty in a statement, urging the government to set aside what they termed “anti-China ideological constraints” and put forward concrete measures and a clear timetable on key issues such as direct cross-strait flights, tourism, exports of agricultural and fishery products, as well as streamlined customs clearance and quarantine for food, so that the people of Taiwan can share the tangible benefits of exchanges.
In the face of rising global economic uncertainty, the government should seize any opportunity that benefits Taiwan’s industries and people’s livelihoods, it said.
Any measures that are good for the public, support industry and have a positive impact on Taiwan’s overall economic development should be approached pragmatically, rather than rejected outright under a “oppose China at every turn, block all exchanges” mindset, it said.
Additional reporting by Lin Hsin-han
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