China ‘welcomes’ Taiwan tourism in symbolic push for closer ties

CHINA said it will reopen its doors to visits from Taiwan tour groups, a mostly symbolic move as Beijing aims to increase exchanges with the island ahead of a key election next year. 

“We warmly welcome Taiwan compatriots” to “see the beautiful scenery and recent developments,” Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said in a statement on Friday (May 19). 

Beijing’s announcement doesn’t carry a lot of practical significance just yet, as Taiwan still bars its own population from travelling to China in group tours. The island isn’t lifting that ban until tourism associations across the strait can talk, the Taipei-based Central News Agency reported on Friday after the China announcement.

China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism allowed the resumption of foreign inbound group tours in March, three years after it clamped down on inbound travel because of Covid-19. But that change didn’t apply to Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy that China claims as part of its territory. 

CNA reported – citing Chang Shi-chung, director-general of Taiwan’s tourism bureau – that talks between Chinese and Taiwanese tourism associations could happen as soon as this month. While Taiwan is happy that Beijing lifted its ban, it had hoped the two sides could jointly announce decisions to open up, CNA cited Chang as saying.

A ban on individual China tourists travelling to Taiwan – implemented in 2019 – remains in effect. The Chinese government halted its tourism scheme that year ahead of the re-election of President Tsai Ing-wen, whose independence-leaning policy has angered China in recent years.

Beijing cited the state of relations between the two sides when it decided to suspend the programme. 

Tsai isn’t eligible for re-election when Taiwan holds its next vote for president early next year. The island’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, chose its presidential candidate this week and is eyeing the leadership after making inroads in local elections last year. 

That’s given Beijing reason to try and woo the KMT ahead of the election, since the party is more China friendly and thus its preferred negotiating partner. Allowing tour groups from Taiwan represents an effort by Beijing to increase communications and recalibrate a hardline approach that has involved piling military, diplomatic and economic pressure on the island in recent years.  

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Earlier this month, the Communist Party’s No 4 official Wang Huning called for improved ties, saying that “cross-Strait exchanges should be restored and expanded step by step.”

“Friendship with people from all social strata in Taiwan should be cultivated,” he said during China’s annual Taiwan work conference. BLOOMBERG