Taiwan launches hotlines to help navigate China travel ‘safety risks’
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The number of Taiwanese travellers visiting China has soared in 2024 despite tensions between Taipei and Beijing.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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TAIPEI – Taiwan has launched hotlines for travellers seeking information about their “safety risks” while in China, which recently published tough criminal sentencing guidelines for supporters of the island’s independence.
The enhanced “emergency assistance services” aim to help address “personal safety risks associated with travelling” to China, Hong Kong and Macau, Taiwan’s top China policy body, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), announced on Dec 2.
China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to bring the island under its control.
The MAC raised its travel warning for China
The guidelines announced in June include the death penalty
China has “continued to enact and amend national security laws, leading to numerous incidents involving the illegal detention, arrest, and interrogation of Taiwanese nationals in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau”, the MAC said.
While Taiwanese travellers do not have to register their visits to China, the number who have done so in 2024 has soared, according to figures released by the MAC.
From January to October, the number of people registering for travel to China’s mainland rose “approximately 14 times” compared to 2023, the MAC said.
Meanwhile, registrations for Hong Kong and Macau “exceeded five times the total for the same period (in 2023)”. AFP
