Beijing is unlikely to resume group tours to Taiwan until after the presidential election in January, an official said on Monday, referencing its combative response to a tentative reopening plan for Chinese tours announced last month.
The Mainland Affairs Council on Aug. 24 announced that it planned to allow Chinese tour groups to visit Taiwan in 30 days — pending China’s response to the policy — with an initial cap of 2,000 visitors per day.
It likely hopes for a reciprocal easing of restrictions, as Beijing still maintains a ban on group travel to Taiwan imposed in January 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
It has also banned Chinese tourists from traveling independently to Taiwan since Aug. 1, 2019, citing “current cross-strait relations.”
Taiwan allows individuals to travel to China, but still bans organized group tours.
It declined to reciprocate when China in May said it would open to Taiwanese group travelers, as the decision was reached unilaterally.
In response to the council’s Aug. 24 announcement, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office at the time accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of seeking to impose more restrictions on cross-strait travel.
“For more than 30 years, Taiwan’s people have not faced any obstacles when traveling to the Mainland [China],” office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) told a news conference in Beijing on Aug. 25. “Why are the DPP authorities now so afraid of Taiwan’s people coming to the Mainland?”
An official familiar with China affairs on Monday said that based on its response, it was “nearly impossible” that Beijing would restart group tours before the election.
China has adopted a “militant” attitude toward Taiwan in the hopes of influencing the vote, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
If voters suddenly start seeing Chinese tourists everywhere, they would hardly consider the election a “choice between war and peace,” as its “mouthpieces” have been suggesting, they added.
“If the [National] Palace Museum and Shilin Night Market were full of Chinese tourists, would Taiwanese believe that war was imminent?” the official asked. “If a bunch of Chinese tourists were in Taiwan, would China send over missiles?”
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