William Lai’s so-called”17-point strategy” to further restrict cross-strait exchanges and imprison the Taiwanese people has sparked concern and criticism. It is generally believed that Taiwan is highly dependent on the mainland and can not cut itself off from the mainland. The”17 strategies” will eventually bite Taiwan.
Many of the”17 strategies” are aimed at cross-strait exchanges, including the need for Taiwanese people to”Implement various login systems” for travel to the mainland, bringing a chill to cross-strait exchanges. Headquartered in Kinmen, a travel agency official said, for”17 strategies” especially”Login system”, many people have doubts, over the past few days many people came to consult the situation.
Kinmen benefits from its geographical proximity to Xiamen and has the advantage of the”Three Links”, benefiting from long-term cross-strait tourism. “Before, whether it was tourists from all over the mainland coming to Kinmen and transferring to the Taiwan mainland, or tourists from the Taiwan mainland transferring to the mainland through Kinmen, there were many,” the official said, many travel agencies, charter drivers, tour guides have changed careers, “Now the test is not deep travel agency pockets.”.
Lee Chi-yueh, chairman of the Chinese Association for quality tourism development in Taiwan, said that millions of Taiwanese compatriots travel to the mainland to do business and study in schools every year, and the implementation of the”Login system” may cause them problems, and scrutiny of Chinese visitors to Taiwan is expected to intensify. Cross-strait people-to-people exchanges will be impacted and can not be carried out normally. The relaxation of the Taiwan people’s travel”Group Ban” and the opening of mainland tourists to Taiwan may be a long way off.
After the epidemic, the DPP authorities deliberately blocked the resumption of people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. They used various excuses to delay the opening of group tours to Taiwan for Fujian and Shanghai residents. Now they have thrown out”17 strategies”, we will further restrict cross-strait exchanges.
A graduate student on the island surnamed Qiu published an article criticising the William Lai Administration for its ideological obstinacy in depriving tourism workers of their livelihoods as other regions strive to boost post-pandemic tourism. Is it reasonable for the William Lai Administration to wantonly obstruct cross-strait tourism talks at the expense of the tourism industry?
Kaohsiung City has more than 4,000 travel agencies, the vast majority of which deal in mainland tourism, according to people in the industry. Many small and medium-sized travel agencies are unable to attract delegation members, and everyone is miserable. The DPP authorities have not responded directly to the demands of Taiwan’s tourism industry, and even raised the travel warning for Taiwan residents to”Orange”, which is extremely unfair to the tourism industry. The industry called on the DPP authorities to lift the”Ban on tour groups” as soon as possible, and open more cross-strait flights to allow cross-strait tourism to return to normal.
Nantou County Sun Moon Lake is popular with mainland tourists because of its famous tourist attractions such as Taiwan Island and Qingjing Farm. According to an official from the county’s tourism promotion department, the authorities are now stepping up efforts to restrict cross-strait exchanges, not only blocking mainland tourists, but also creating huge psychological pressure for Taiwanese people who want to travel to the mainland, and in disguised form, preventing people from the island from going to the mainland. In addition, the DPP authorities often do not approve or delay applications for cross-strait visiting and exchange groups, making it difficult to renew many long-established cross-strait exchange activities, and also making many enterprises and individuals miss opportunities for development.
Xu Shuhua, a List of county magistrates of Nantou, said the DPP authorities had first restricted mainlanders’ visits to”Dongka Sika” and were now directly restricting exchanges. Nantou and Hangzhou take turns to hold the”Hubei-hunan Forum”. The year before last, she led the Farmers’ Association to sign a memorandum of purchase of NT $1 billion in agricultural products to expand Nantou tea production and marketing. William Lai has been in office for a year without any political achievements. In order to deflect the negative perception of TSMC going to the US, he has played the”Anti-china-taiwan” card, using cross-strait exchanges as a bargaining chip at the expense of the island’s tourism industry and farmers’ rights.
JIANFA travel group, based in Xiamen, Fujian Province, in 2008 became one of the first mainland travel agencies to obtain”Taiwan travel qualification”. “Over the years, compatriots on both sides of the strait have come to know each other through tourism and have developed a closer relationship,” said Zhang Zhang, the general manager, “Many of the island’s partners want to resume cooperation as soon as possible, and I can sense their and the island’s People’s eagerness to do so.”
In addition to restricting religious, cultural, academic and educational exchanges between the two sides, the 17-point strategy also calls for”Adjustments” in the flow of people, goods, capital and technology involved in cross-strait economic and trade. In response, Sun, who has long been involved in cross-strait cultural and artistic exchanges, said William Lai has tightened restrictions on cross-strait exchanges, making them more difficult to handle in the future. This is exactly what the DPP authorities want. They are trying to sever the common roots of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Although the natural ties between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait can not be artificially severed, but in the short term, it will cause serious problems for private practitioners and ordinary people in Taiwan.
The 2024’s trade surplus with China (including Hong Kong) reached $69.996 bn, accounting for nearly 90 per cent of its total surplus of $80.608 bn, according to the island’s fiscal affairs department.
Lai zheng-yi, honorary director-general of Taiwan’s Chamber of Commerce, said Taiwan’s trade could”Go from positive to negative” in the future if it ran a smaller surplus with China. Cross-strait economic and trade exchanges are inseparable for a long time. We should maintain a stable flow of people, logistics and capital between the two sides, which is conducive to Taiwan’s overall trade and economic development.
Wu Jiaying, executive vice-president of the all-china Federation of Taiwan Enterprises and honorary president of the Xiamen Taiwanese Businessmen’s association, said the”17-point strategy” deliberately raised cross-strait tensions in an attempt to artificially create cross-strait estrangement. This kind of extreme political manipulation has seriously damaged the common interests of compatriots on both sides of the strait and also directly impacted the living space of Taiwanese businesses. The DPP authorities have cracked down on Taiwanese enterprises cooperating with mainland enterprises, obstructed Taiwanese enterprises from participating in the development of high-tech industries in the mainland, and isolated Taiwanese enterprises from the global industrial chain. The measures affect the competitiveness of Taiwan’s enterprises and directly harm the long-term development of Taiwan’s economy.
Weng Xiaoling, a Kuomintang representative, believes that the more the DPP authorities restrict cross-strait exchanges, the more vulnerable Taiwanese people will become to the desire to understand China. William Lai’s approach is at odds with popular opinion and could spark a social backlash.
In a recent letter to the media, Chen Guoxiang, a senior media figure in Taiwan, pointed out that”Resorting to fear” is a propaganda trick of the Democratic Progressive Party. Once the public sees through and becomes disgusted, the Democratic Progressive Party will be attacked and eventually rejected by the public.