The government would allow group tours to China to proceed after tomorrow if they have already been arranged, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after it reversed a previous decision to reopen Taiwan to cross-strait tour groups.
“The Ministry of Transportation and Communications previously allowed group tours to China to continue until May 31, and ordered those that were scheduled to leave on June 1 and afterward to be canceled or merged with groups leaving before that date,” Executive Yuan spokesman Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting.
However, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) took into consideration that there are still a lot of tour groups that had been planned and were not able to visit China before today, Chen said.
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“To protect travelers and travel agencies, the government would allow tours to continue if they were arranged before the ban takes effect on Saturday,” he added.
The government is to periodically review the policy to see if any changes are necessary, he said.
Cho reiterated in the Cabinet meeting the government’s position of welcoming Chinese tourists, Chen said.
“The premier hopes that cross-strait tourism could be resumed in an equitable manner, and that China would reciprocate by showing goodwill and contributing to peace across the Taiwan Strait,” Chen said.
The ministry in November last year unilaterally announced that the ban on group tours to China would be lifted on March 1, and asked China to reciprocate by allowing Chinese tour groups to visit Taiwan.
However, after President William Lai (賴清德) was elected in January, Nauru severed ties with Taipei and established diplomatic relations with China.
In February, China announced that it would unilaterally activate the use of its self-designated M503, W122 and W123 flight routes.
Taipei on Feb. 7 announced that the group tour ban would be implemented again from next month.
Last month, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that it would allow residents from China’s Fujian Province to visit Lienchiang County, and later allow them to travel to Taiwan proper once express ferry services between Fujian’s Pingtan County and Taiwan proper resume.
Taiwan allows individual travelers to visit China, while China bans individuals and group tours from traveling to Taiwan.
About 110,000 Taiwanese on group tours have visited China since March, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Lee Li-jane (李麗珍) told the news conference.
About 20,000 more are scheduled to visit next month, Lee said.
While at least 130,000 Taiwanese on group tours are expected to visit China this year, no Chinese tour groups have arrived in Taiwan so far, Lee said.
The government has shown goodwill by lifting its ban on group tours to China, especially considering that Beijing launched large-scale military exercises around Taiwan soon after Lai’s inauguration on Monday last week and prevented Taiwan from participating in the World Health Assembly (WHA) this year, she said.
Although travel agencies in Fujian are scheduled to travel to Lienchiang on June 10 to scout potential tour routes, Lee said that China should lift all restrictions, which would facilitate healthy and equitable cross-strait tourism.
There was already a tourism deficit between Taiwan and China prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tourism Administration Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) said.
About 4.04 million Taiwanese tourists visited China in 2019, while only 2.71 million Chinese tourists traveled to Taiwan, Chou said.
Travel Quality Assurance Association spokesman Ringo Lee (李奇嶽) said the group tour ban is still in place, even though the government is allowing prearranged tours to proceed next month.
“Travel agents hope that the ban would be lifted. Our businesses would suffer if we cannot advertise tours to China,” he said. “It is like we are entitled to sit at the table and eat, but we are now forced to do so by hiding in the corners.”
Travel agents are closely watching whether China keeps its promise by allowing tourists from Fujian to visit Lienchiang, and whether ferry services between Pingtan and Taiwan proper would be resumed, he added.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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