A Beijing official’s claim that Chinese tourists were avoiding Kaohsiung because certain people in the city were aligning themselves with Tibetan and Uighur separatist forces demonstrated ignorance and “hurt the feelings of Taiwan’s people,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said yesterday.
Lai was referring to comments that China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Spokeswoman Fan Liqing (范麗青) made on Wednesday in response to media inquiries about the falling number of Chinese tourists visiting Kaohsiung.
Chinese tourists began cutting the city from their itinerary after the Dalai Lama visited southern Taiwan in the wake of Typhoon Morakot and the city government rejected demands to prevent a documentary about Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer from being screened at the Kaohsiung Film Festival.
“It is natural that Chinese tourists would express their displeasure, because there are forces in Kaohsiung City who align themselves with separatist forces supporting Tibetan and Uighur independence, which creates trouble and runs counter to the core interests of the mainland,” Fan said on Wednesday. “It hurts the feelings of their mainland compatriots.”
Fan’s remarks were the first time a Chinese official had referred to tourists boycotting Kaohsiung.
Fielding questions from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators during a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee, Lai said Fan was making “groundless accusations.”
“It shows she has little understanding of Taiwan’s democracy. She hurt the feelings of Taiwan’s people,” Lai said.
At a separate setting yesterday, the Presidential Office encouraged Chinese tourists to visit Kaohsiung, but stopped short of denouncing Beijing for its apparent boycott of the city.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said Kaohsiung residents were as friendly and hospitable as any other Taiwanese and that the city had many worthwhile attractions.
Wang said Chinese tourists should not miss the opportunity to visit Kaohsiung.
The Kaohsiung City Government, meanwhile, urged the central government to take note of the Chinese tourist boycott of the city.
Kaohsiung Information Office director-general Hsu Li-ming (許立明) said China was using tourists as a bargaining chip to achieve political goals.
Hsu said Taiwan considered democracy and human rights important, which was why the city government did not interfere with the organization of the Kaohsiung Film Festival, which opens today.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said that the city welcomed visitors from any country, “even tourists from China.”
“I hope other countries won’t impose restrictions on the places their tourists can visit just because [some countries] have different values,” Chen said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), who represents a constituency in the city, said both China and the Kaohsiung City Government were to blame for the boycott.
Huang said the city government had been “provocative” in its handling of the Dalai Lama’s visit and the screening of the documentary, The 10 Conditions of Love, by director Jeff Daniels.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
Also See: [ FILM ] Notes on a subversive festival
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS