Taipei - The chairman of Taiwan's ruling KMT party said on
Saturday air links with China and opening up Taiwan to Chinese
tourists is vital for peace.
Wu Poh-hsiung made the remarks at a banquet for a 60-member
Chinese tourism inspection delegation, led by Shao Qiwei, director of
the China National Tourism Administration, which arrived Friday when
Taiwan launched weekend charter flights with China and began to
accept Chinese tourists.
More than 760 Chinese flew to Taiwan as the 'inaugural tour
group' when six Chinese and five Taiwan airlines operated a total of
18 round-trip charter flights.
In his speech, Wu said charter flights and tourism groups coming
to Taiwan are an important step towards cross-straits peace.
'Some media criticized the charter flights, saying some of the
flights were almost empty. They will find themselves wrong in two or
three 3 months,' he said.
'According to a survey conducted in China, at least some 50
million mainlanders want to visit Taiwan. So if 1 million mainlanders
visit Taiwan each year, it will take 50 years for all of them to have
visited Taiwan,' he said.
Wu warned Taiwan's service industry not to look down upon China
and Chinese tourists.
'I have visited China several times, and found that their tourist
facilities are much better than ours. The hotels and airports in
Beijing and Shanghai are modern and luxurious. However, Taiwan has
its own characteristics. The Taiwan island is a very beautiful
place,' he noted.
Taiwan has banned air, sea and trade links with China since 1949,
when the Republic of China government lost the Chinese Civil War and
fled to Taiwan to set up its government-in-exile.
In 1987, Taiwan allowed its citizens to visit China, by transiting
through a third place, usually Hong Kong, but continued to bar
mainlanders from entering Taiwan for security reasons.
After Ma Ying-jeou of the pro-China KMT became president on May
20, he sought to seek peace with China and put aside political
differences, like unification an independence.
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