A The measure, which comes into force on Thursday, will allow Fujian residents to visit the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands for tourism and business purposes.
In a second phase, group trips to other parts of Taiwan will be authorized, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism said on Sunday.
Chinese Government Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian urged Taiwan on the same day to consider the interests of the public and tourist companies on both sides of the Strait to resume all direct flights and sea travel as fast as possible.
“Despite the partial return of direct air and sea routes last year after China lifted Covid-19 restrictions, flight options remain limited and direct sea passenger services have not yet resumed,” said Zhu .
China’s General Administration of Customs also announced on Sunday that it will approve the import of grapefruit and other agricultural and fishery products from Taiwan, as long as they meet mainland Chinese requirements.
In response to the resumption of tourism between Fujian and Matsu, the Taiwan Council for Continental Affairs – the body responsible for relations with China – criticized the Beijing authorities’ decision to “grossly reduce the initial objectives” of the tourist exchange plan between the both sides of the Strait.
“Only Fujian residents are allowed to visit Matsu, but not Kinmen and Penghu,” the organization declared in a statement, in which it also highlighted that the Chinese principles of “reciprocal opening” of tourism are not being respected.
Taiwan’s Minister of the Interior, Lin Yu-chang, stated that “equitable exchanges” between the two sides of the strait are a “shared expectation and consensus” of the Taiwanese people, but that these exchanges, he added, must be “without conditions prior or political considerations”.
The opening of agricultural and fishing exports and the resumption of travel between Fujian and Matsu coincided with a trip to China by a group of deputies from the Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan’s main opposition party.
Led by Fu Kun-chi, leader of the KMT group in the Legislative Yuan (Taiwanese parliament), the group of seventeen deputies met with Wang Huning, chairman of the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference (consultative body), and Song Tao, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council (Chinese Executive) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Saturday.
“We are all Chinese and belong to the same family,” Wang said during the meeting.
After returning to Taipei, Fu stated that, after the “marathon of talks” and “constant coordination” between the KMT and Beijing authorities, “there have been extraordinary improvements in tourism and [exportação de] agricultural products”.
“After the distance of the last eight years, it is possible to obtain fruitful results in a short space of time. Of course, this is just the beginning and we will continue to work hard,” said the opposition deputy, according to state news agency CNA.
The deputies’ trip took place less than a month before the inauguration of the island’s current vice-president, William Lai, considered an “independentist” in the eyes of Beijing.
China and Taiwan have lived as two autonomous territories since 1949, when the former Chinese nationalist government took refuge on the island, following the defeat in the Chinese civil war against the communists.
Beijing considers the island its province and does not rule out the use of force to achieve reunification.
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