Travel Groups React to Taiwan Travel Warning for China
Travel agencies in Taiwan are concerned that the latest travel advisory against unnecessary travel to China issued by the Mainland Affairs Council will hurt business and cross-strait ties.
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00:00Cross-strait ties getting worse as travel agencies in Taiwan worry over the
00:05government's decision to up its travel advisory to China, Hong Kong and Macau,
00:09urging Taiwanese citizens not to go unless absolutely necessary.
00:15The travel industry is quite damaged.
00:17Should we not jump so many levels all at once?
00:20The result of communicating with the mainland is that there is no impact.
00:25We just set off at regular intervals.
00:27Taiwan has raised its travel alert for China to an orange warning,
00:31the second highest alert effective immediately,
00:34citing various changing national security laws by Beijing.
00:38It's just short of an outright travel ban.
00:41Just last week, new guidelines from Beijing threatened the death penalty
00:46for advocates of Taiwan independence.
00:48There were already concerns for the safety of Taiwanese travellers to China
00:53after a member of a tour group was detained there for several days.
00:57If the government does not remind citizens to pay attention to the danger signal,
01:02it is dereliction of duty.
01:03Beijing has been upping its coercion of Taiwan
01:06with military drills and suspension of tariff reliefs
01:10since President Lai Ching-teh took office in Taipei in May.
01:14China analysts say Beijing's increasing use of legal means
01:18to reject Taiwanese sovereignty shows that its seas lie as a real threat
01:22to its goal of unification,
01:24but that wielding its laws in this way could work against China in the long run.
01:30This has some potential for it to impact folks that aren't just Taiwan citizens,
01:35but all of the rest of us.
01:38And countries that send people to China
01:41or maybe to third countries that are friendly with China,
01:46you know, it puts in Beijing's court this decision to determine
01:50what is a Taiwan independence activity or not.
01:54Cross-strait analysts say by creating an environment
01:57where people are afraid to travel freely in China,
02:00whether it's for business, study or to visit loved ones,
02:04hurts opportunities for political and personal dialogue,
02:08a risky path forward for an already tense relationship.
02:12Yixin Chen and Joyce Chen for Taiwan Plus.