The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council responds to the mainland's opening of group tourism to Taiwan

On September 11, in the morning, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council held a regular press conference. Reporter Q: The DPP authorities said recently that they have shown goodwill to mainland tourists visiting Taiwan, "Taiwan has offered an olive branch for a long time", and called on the mainland to open up group tours and free travel as soon as possible. What is your comment on this? How can we promote cross-strait tourism to return to normal in the next step? At present, the mainland has resumed issuing travel permits for Fujian residents to visit Matsu. On August 30, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that it will resume Fujian residents to visit Kinmen. The relevant "stepping on the thread" group will leave soon. These measures are a positive response to the expectations of the Taiwanese people and tourism industry for the resumption of cross-strait tourism exchanges and cooperation, and have been welcomed by the people and industry on the island. For some time now, the DPP authorities have been capricious and untrustworthy in lifting the "ban on group tours" for island residents to travel to the mainland, and even raised the warning for Taiwanese residents to travel to the mainland to "orange" in June. Recently, it was exposed by the media that it would reject the application of Taiwan's tourism industry to charter ships to the mainland on the grounds of so-called "national security concerns". Facts show that the DPP authorities continue to engage in political manipulation in order to seek political self-interest and ignore the legitimate rights and interests of the people and the tourism industry on the island, which is the real obstacle to the return of cross-strait tourism to normal.