The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that it had denied the Taipei City Government’s request to allow a delegation of officials from Shanghai to visit Taiwan for the Taipei Lantern Festival.
The application was rejected, because the group’s itinerary involved tourism-related activities and the festival is considered a cultural exchange, the MAC said.
“Part of the trip involves tourism-related activities, and such matters should first be coordinated through the two cross-strait tourism associations before an application is made [to the MAC] to enter Taiwan,” it said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The Taiwan Strait Tourism Association and the Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits handle cross-strait tourism.
The city government submitted a special request on Jan. 20 for a delegation from the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism to visit Taiwan from Tuesday next week to Friday next week, to attend the Taipei Lantern Festival and other tourism events, the MAC said in a statement.
Following a comprehensive evaluation, the application was rejected, it said.
That is the second rejection since the Lunar New Year holiday for Chinese officials who want to visit Taiwan during the festival, which runs from Monday to Feb. 16.
MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) on Monday said that a 13-member delegation of Shanghai Municipal Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) members, including its director Jin Mei (金梅), was denied entry to Taiwan, because their application to the MAC was “submitted a bit late” and could not be processed in time.
It is unclear whether that delegation’s itinerary included additional tourism activities.
However, Chiu said that the application was mainly rejected, because he believed the Shanghai TAO had deliberately prevented Taiwanese business owners in Shanghai from visiting Taiwan for Lunar New Year holiday activities.
Many people traditionally return to Taiwan for such events, but numbers in recent years had dwindled, he added.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday expressed regret over the MAC’s decision, saying it broke the long-standing tradition of a delegation from Shanghai participating in the Taipei Lantern Festival.
Communication and exchanges are more crucial as cross-strait relations become increasingly tense, he said.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
RSS