Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) members yesterday condemned China for manipulating the tourism market in a bid to coerce Taiwan ahead of a planned protest by travel operators today, saying the tourism industry needs to reform and break away from overdependence on China.
China has restricted tourism to Taiwan as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration refuses to accept the so-called “1992 consensus,” which is part of China’s attempt to annex Taiwan by economic coercion, TSU Youth Department deputy director Hsu Ya-chi (許亞齊) said.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“Taiwan’s tourism industry, as well as other industries, has to diversify its client base and seek international customers to escape overreliance on the Chinese market and hostile political manipulation,” Hsu said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) China-friendly administration focused the nation’s economy on the Chinese market, and the tourism industry has ended up in a vicious cycle of depleting limited tourism resources to court low-spending Chinese tourist groups, former TSU legislator Chou Ni-an (周倪安) said.
The number of inbound tourists has grown by about 1 million every year and it reached 10 million last year, while Chinese tourists increased from 22.95 percent of all foreign travelers in 2008 to 53.23 percent last year, Chou said.
However, the average daily consumption per tourist has dropped alongside the increase in Chinese tourists, going down from US$224.07 in 2013 to US$207.87 last year.
“Far from benefiting from increased Chinese tourist numbers, the nation is entrenched in a tourism pattern that offers low-quality and low-profit package tours to Chinese visitors,” Chou said.
Travel agencies funded with Chinese capital that provide one-stop services should be barred from receiving relief loans from the Executive Yuan, she said.
The Executive Yuan on Thursday last week approved a plan to extend NT$30 billion (US$948.45 million) in loans to the tourism sector amid the drastic decrease in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan.
Tourism has to be developed in line with national security, environmental capacity and service quality to prevent a flood of low-quality tour groups overwhelming the nation’s capacity, she said.
“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has threatened to cease all interaction with Taiwan if the DPP administration does not accept the ‘1992 consensus.’ For the first time the TSU supports the CCP. We called on the CCP to keep its word and cease the interaction as soon as possible,” TSU youth director Chang Chao-lin (張兆林) said.
“What the nation needs least is Chinese tourists being used to manipulate Taiwan’s economy and independence,” Chang said, in response to Minister Without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen’s (張景森) remark that Chinese visitors are Taiwan’s “most needed friends.”
Although travel firms are understandably distressed, they have to transform their business models to become more sustainable and profitable to prevent being paralyzed by Chinese manipulation, Chang said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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