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China opens first office in Taiwan
BUSINESS IS BOOMING: The government said tourist arrivals
had grown more rapidly than in any other East Asian country because of improving
ties with China
Staff writer, with AFP, TAIPEI
Saturday, May 08, 2010, Page 1
China yesterday opened its first office in Taiwan, celebrating the opening of
the office of the quasi-official Cross-Strait Tourism Exchange Association with
a gala dinner at the Grand Hotel in Taipei.
“The office has been established to promote exchanges and to boost travel across
the Strait,” the association said in a statement.
China National Tourism Administration Commissioner Shao Qiwei (邵琪偉) attended the
opening ceremony.
Fan Guishan (范貴山), chief secretary of the Cross-Strait Tourism Association, told
Chinese media in Taipei this week that he was “proud and honored” to be assigned
to his new post in charge of the association’s Taipei office.
“I had hoped to have the chance to visit Taiwan before, but I never dreamed that
I would become the first director of the [tourism] office,” he was quoted by the
China News Service as saying. “I am deeply moved by the Taiwanese people’s
warmth.”
Fan and two aides came to Taipei in September last year to prepare for the
opening of the office, which is located in the business district on Dunhua S
Road (敦化南路).
On Tuesday, Taipei unveiled its new office in Beijing in the first swap of
semi-official representative offices. The Tourism Bureau announced yesterday
that Yang Ruey-tzhong (楊瑞宗), chief of the Third Directorate of Taiwan’s
Executive, was chosen as the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association representative in
Beijing, the first government official to be stationed in China.
At the opening ceremony in Beijing, Taiwanese tourism chief Janice Lai (賴瑟珍)
hailed the move as a “new milestone” in the promotion of tourism exchanges
between the two sides. Taiwanese authorities have said Taiwan saw higher tourism
growth than anywhere else in Asia last year because of Chinese visitors.
The opening of the tourism offices comes as President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九)
administration aims to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA)
with China next month, saying it would boost growth and employment.
Critics say the planned pact jeopardizes Taiwan’s sovereignty and would make it
too economically dependent on China.
George Tsai (蔡瑋), a political scientist at Taipei’s Chinese Culture University,
said the opening of the tourism offices would boost ties with Beijing, but
included some risks.
“This is a positive development in cross-strait ties and a step in the right
direction, but political interference can happen at any time,” he said.
Ma’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) faces stiff competition from the Democratic
Progressive Party in November’s municipal elections.
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