Bilateral relations between Mainland China and Chinese Taipei continue to improve with new relaxation measures announced.
TAIPEI- On Monday, senior officials from Mainland China announced a series of new measures benefiting people from Taiwan in stepped-up interchanges. The steps are likely to contribute positively to travel movements across the Strait. The measures were unveiled during the fourth Strait Forum in Xiamen, Mainland China’s largest city facing Taiwan Island. New measures will include offering equal employment opportunities to Taiwanese, extending the maximum validity of Taiwan residents’ travel permits to the mainland to two years and increase the number of mainland cities eligible to issue visas to people from Taiwan upon landing. Officials from the Mainland Affairs Council in Taipei welcomed the further measures for more active interchanges. They said the council will conduct a study of the new steps for further actions.
China’s office in charge of the relations with Taiwan indicated that the mainland cities of Nanning in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Wuxi in Jiangsu province will be added from June 20 to the current 28 locations in China allowed to handle convenient travel permit services for Taiwanese citizens. Changchun City in Jilin province is also scheduled to provide the services this year, according to Wang.
Mainland China will approve a second Taiwan office for tourism promotion in Shanghai. The Taipei-based travel association presently has only a single branch in Beijing. In 2011, travellers’ movement across the Strait reached 7.05 million and is likely to reach the 10-million mark by 2014.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
