Zhu Fenglian Photo: Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities have unilaterally set “prior consultation via tourism-related cross-Straits exchanges” as a precondition and rejected applications by mainland inspection tour groups to visit Taiwan, a move that amounts to political manipulation and deliberate obstruction, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Thursday.

Spokesperson Zhu Fenglian made the remarks in response to a media question on the DPP authorities’ decision to deny applications from tourism operators in Shanghai and Fujian seeking to conduct inspection tours in Taiwan. The decision has drawn opposition from tourism associations and industry representatives on the island, who urged the DPP authorities to reduce political interference, allow tourism to move first, and preserve space for easing cross-Straits relations.

Zhu told a press briefing that promoting the resumption of travel to Taiwan by residents of Shanghai and Fujian is a positive step that responds to mainstream public opinion in Taiwan and helps advance the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations.

Inspection tours are a routine industry practice designed to coordinate arrangements for accommodation, catering, scenic sites and reception services. They are purely people-to-people and business exchanges, she said.

Calls from the tourism sector to reduce political manipulation and prioritize tourism exchanges reflect widespread dissatisfaction with the DPP authorities’ politicization of cross-Straits tourism, their disregard for the operational difficulties facing local tourism businesses, and their neglect of people’s livelihood concerns, Zhu said.

“We have always upheld the belief that people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits are of one family, promoting the resumption of travel to Taiwan by mainland residents, and continuing to demonstrate goodwill,” Zhu said. “If the DPP authorities truly care about the livelihoods of the tourism industry, they should lift the restrictions on mainland residents traveling to Taiwan as soon as possible.”

On June 24, Chen Binhua, another spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, also criticized the DPP authorities in response to a related question, saying that the cross-Straits agreement on mainland residents traveling to Taiwan island was signed between the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) on the basis of the 1992 Consensus. 

The DPP authorities refuse to recognize the 1992 Consensus, and their tourism authority has even made claims about cross-Straits tourism consultation mechanism, fully exposing their nature and intention of denying the 1992 Consensus, undermining cross-Straits exchanges, and pursuing "Taiwan independence" separatism, Chen said.

Global Times