Price-cutting competition would reduce the quality of travel in China, a Taiwanese researcher said on Thursday after China’s Fujian Provincial Government rolled out incentives to attract Taiwanese tourists.
Cash bonuses of 80,000 yuan (US$11,250), 50,000 yuan and 30,000 yuan would be given annually to the top three travel industry operators who attract the most Taiwanese to travel to Fujian Province’s Nanping City, the provincial government said on Tuesday.
Taiwanese would rather travel to other countries instead of China, where they would put themselves in danger, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said, adding that the bonuses reflect the fact that traveling to Fujian does not appeal to Taiwanese.
Photo: Reuters
The Fujian Provincial Government expects to attract more Taiwanese through the travel industry, but the businesses are likely to compete for the bonuses via a price war, which would certainly lead to a decline in quality, Wu said.
The number of Taiwanese visiting China has plummeted, as the government had upgraded its travel warning and banned group tours to the country following Beijing’s announcement of its 22 guidelines “to punish Taiwanese independence diehards,” he said.
The Fujian Provincial Government is trying to boost the number in a move to step up cross-strait integration and exchanges, but such “united front” tactics might not work if the number of Taiwanese visiting the region continues to decline, he added.
The effort has four aspects: promote financial cooperation with Taiwan, encourage Taiwanese to work in Fujian, expand judicial services for Taiwanese arbitration institutions, and facilitate life and travel in Fujian for Taiwanese, Wu said.
For example, Taiwanese travelers could make mobile payments via digital cards provided by Industrial Bank through China UnionPay, while 60 banking and insurance institutions dedicated to providing financial services for Taiwanese people and companies would be set up.
To facilitate international financing for Taiwanese enterprises, qualified companies operating in Fujian could borrow from external sources at banks instead of at foreign exchange bureaus.
Taiwanese medical department students whose educational background has been certified by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange could sign up for China’s National Medical Licensing Examination in Fujian after they have worked in a qualified hospital in the province for a year and passed assessments.
In Zhangzhou City, 240 job vacancies would be provided annually for Taiwanese nurses in the next five years, with an onboarding bonus of 3,000 yuan to 4,000 yuan, as well as an annual bonus of 1,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan in accordance with their job tenure and competency in Taiwan.
Taiwanese civil and commercial arbitration institutions would be allowed to establish branches in Xiamen City to run operations involving Hong Kong, Macau and foreign countries.
The Mainland Affairs Council on Tuesday said Beijing continues to initiate preferential policies and measures for Taiwan to draw in Taiwanese people and companies and boost its flagging economy.
However, Taiwanese do not agree with Beijing’s autocratic regime and might not find these preferential measures of much interest, it said.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
RSS