An offer from Beijing to lift travel bans on Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan and to cut tariffs and restrictions on the export of Taiwanese fruit to China was met yesterday with suspicion in Taipei, as cross-strait authorities pointed to possible ulterior motives.
"It does not matter whether we like it [these measures] or not if China has other political motives ... anything with political motives will be manipulated," a high-ranking official with the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
"These [measures] should not be given as gifts ... What if problems arise? Who will be responsible then?" the official asked, saying that the recent moves were part of Beijing's "united front" tactics.
In addition to making a gift of a pair of giant pandas, Beijing announced yesterday that it is also prepared to lift import bans on six additional types of fruit from Taiwan, bringing the total number to 18. Heavy customs tariffs levied on 15 different fruits, including papayas, guavas, bananas, grapefruits, wax apples, pineapples and betel nuts are also to be revoked.
According to the Council of Agriculture's records, Taiwan exported a total of US$895,400 in fruit products to China last year, and US$974,816 worth of fruit in 2003.
Beijing is also planning a comprehensive relaxation of current travel restrictions, lifting bans on Chinese tourists traveling to Taiwan.
Issuing its latest concessions at the end of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) closely watched visit to China, the measures were announced as a cooperative effort between Beijing's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the KMT and the People First Party (PFP) by Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), the director of the Taiwan Office of the CCP's Central Committee, in Shanghai yesterday.
Chen is also the head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of Beijing's State Council.
"The KMT and the PFP have expressed on many occasions the Taiwan compatriots' desire for [Chinese] residents to travel to Taiwan -- the PFP has come up with specific proposals on this issue," Chen was quoted as saying regarding the removal of travel bans in a report carried on the state-run Xinhua News Agency. He then said that the CCP, KMT and PFP had agreed to facilitate the sale of Taiwanese fruit and agricultural products in China.
MAC expressed dissatisfaction with the arrangement however, highlighting the need for official negotiations and warning that the moves were politically loaded.
"The contingent problems are very broad and require negotiations to build consensus," the MAC official said.
"[China] should not handle the issue in such simplistic terms. With policies of economic relaxation, it is best to sit down and discuss our priorities," the official said.
"The matter needs to be brought back under the system of official negotiations," he said.
He also implored China to back its words up with action, referring to the relaxation of restrictions on Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan's outlying islands last September.
"At the time, the quota was set at 600 tourists a day, but to date, the total number of tourists hasn't reached this figure," he said, highlighting the need for the better execution of policies.
MAC Vice Chairman and spokesman You Ying-lung (
"China needs to protect the rights of farmers in granting greater market access to Taiwanese fruit. It can't just be a few benefits here and there. There needs to be a more systematic method of dealing with the matter, or else it really does not benefit farmers," You said.
You said that with regard to Chinese tourism in Taiwan, negotiations were also necessary to work out details.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS