KMT caucus whip touts tourism wins following China 'ice-breaker trip'

Taipei, April 29 (CNA) Kuomintang (KMT) legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) on Monday highlighted breakthroughs made following his leading of a KMT delegation to Beijing, describing the visit as an "ice-breaker trip" that facilitated allowing Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan.

At a press conference in the Legislative Yuan, Fu, who led a delegation of 17 KMT lawmakers to Beijing from April 26 to 28 and met with senior Chinese officials, said that China has agreed to resume direct air routes between Taiwan and 30 major Chinese cities.

Currently, there are only 15 airports in Taiwan and China where cross-strait flights leave from and arrive, less than a quarter of the 61 before the pandemic.

In addition, residents of 20 densely populated cities in China, including the four direct-administered municipalities -- Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing -- will be allowed to apply for a permit to visit Taiwan from the Chinese authorities online, Fu said.

"This will allow mainland residents to enter Taiwan with greater convenience," he added.

Other measures, such as China permitting tourists from Fujian Province to visit the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands and expanding access to Taiwanese agricultural and fishery products in the Chinese market were also mentioned by Fu.

On April 28, China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism said residents of Fujian Province would be allowed to participate in group tours to other parts of Taiwan after the resumption of sea transport between the Chinese county Pingtan, located in Fujian province, and Taiwan.

April 28

● Taiwan lukewarm about China's eased rules on travel to Matsu

● Chinese military aircraft detected 68.5 km from Keelung: Defense ministry

Fu urged the authorities in Taiwan to respond to China's request of the resumption, emphasizing that it would enable nearly 50 million residents of Fujian Province to travel to Taiwan.

Regarding the quota of Chinese tourists allowed to visit Taiwan, Fu said Taiwan aims to limit the number to 2,000 per day, which raises concerns regarding how spots will be allocated when tourists from the 30-plus provinces in China become eligible for entry.

He added that in the past, around 5 million Chinese visitors came to Taiwan annually, equating to approximately 15,000 arrivals per day.

When asked about the incident of 12 Chinese military aircraft crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait on April 27, the second day of Fu's trip to Beijing, the KMT legislative caucus whip failed to specifically respond.

"I want to emphasize once again that this visit by the KMT is aimed at listening to all sectors in Taiwan and consistently advocating for the well-being and contentment of the Taiwanese people, while also working towards improving cross-strait relations," he said.

"The first [goal] was an ice-breaker trip to promote peace across the Taiwan Strait, and we have successfully achieved that," he added.

In response to China's request for the resumption of transport between Pingtan and Taiwan as a condition for Fujian residents' being permitted to take part in tours to Taiwan, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a press release on Sunday that such arrangements neither adhere to the principle of reciprocal opening nor conform to the norms of tourism.

Subsequent decisions will be made by the MAC and other relevant departments, according to the statement.

Travel links between Taiwan and China have been largely frozen for the past three years, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

China halted independent travel to Taiwan on Aug. 1, 2019, citing the poor state of cross-strait relations. It then suspended group travel to Taiwan in 2020.