Taiwan warns against traveling to China after death threats Reuters
Written by Ben Blanchard and Jeanny Kao
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s government lifted its travel warning for China on Thursday, telling its citizens not to travel unless absolutely necessary, following threats from Beijing last week to kill those deemed to support Taiwanese independence.
Liang Wen-chieh, a spokesman for the Taiwan News Council, told reporters that the proposed travel warning also applies to the Chinese-controlled cities of Hong Kong and Macau.
China, which regards democratic Taiwan as its own country, has made no secret of its dislike of President Lai Ching-te, whom it considers a “separatist”, and staged war games two days after he took office last month.
Last week, when it announced new legal guidelines, China threatened to kill Taiwanese separatists in extreme cases, re-igniting tensions that drew criticism from Lai and his government, as well as the United States.
Liang, making the announcement at a regular news conference in Taipei, said the directives pose a serious threat to the safety of Taiwanese visiting China, in addition to other measures China has been taking to tighten national security laws.
“If there’s no need to travel, don’t do it,” he said, adding that this did not mean a travel ban and was more about protecting Taiwanese people and reminding them of the dangers rather than a “method of fighting”.
China’s Taiwan News Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Wednesday, asked about concerns that these directives could cause fear among the Taiwanese people and not help to improve relations, the office said that they are aimed at a very small number of independent “bad words and actions of diehards”.
China has vowed to go after people it views as Taiwanese separatists wherever they are, although Chinese courts do not have jurisdiction over Taiwan and it is unclear how China would seek to enforce any judgments outside its borders.
Regarding whether China would want to return Taiwanese people abroad who accused them of secession, Liang said that secession is a political crime and in this case it is specific to China, and that developed countries will not cooperate with such a request.
“We will not decide which countries will cooperate,” he added, without naming any countries.
President Lai has offered several talks with China but was rejected. He rejects Beijing’s claims of sovereignty and says only the people of Taiwan can decide their future.
