BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s tourism ministry said on Friday that it has begun preparations to resume group tours to Taiwan from Shanghai and Fujian province in the near future, with Taipei saying it welcomed the move.
China and Taiwan have argued since the end of COVID-19 about when and how tourists from China could resume visiting the island, which Beijing claims as part of its territory. Taipei strongly rejects China’s sovereignty claims.
Both sides have blamed the other for travel not fully restarting, adding to existing tensions between Beijing and Taipei.
At his New Year’s news conference, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said he welcomed exchanges with China but wondered whether there was goodwill in return from Beijing, given what he described as their blocking of simple things like tourism.
China’s culture and tourism ministry said in a short statement that the resumption of group tours from Shanghai, as well as from Fujian province, which sits on the other side of the Taiwan Strait from the island, would happen soon.
It did not, however, give a date for the resumption of travel.
This was being done in order to further promote the normalisation of people-to-people exchanges and “enhance the interests and well-being of compatriots on both sides of the strait,” the ministry said.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said it welcomed Chinese tourists to the island and urged Beijing to arrange details via existing cross-strait channels as soon as possible.
Taipei last year raised its travel warning for China, telling its citizens not to go unless absolutely necessary, following a threat from Beijing to execute those deemed “diehard” Taiwan independence supporters.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said on Friday that Taipei should cancel the travel warning and fully resume all direct travel links across the strait.
Lai, whom Beijing calls a “separatist”, has offered talks with China but has been rejected.
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; addotional reporting by Yimou Lee; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Tom Hogue, Diane Craft and Saad Sayeed)
