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Amber Wang

Scheduled visits to Taiwan by two mainland Chinese academic delegations in recent days have been postponed due to obstacles imposed by Taipei, according to Taiwanese media.
One of the delegations, led by Xiamen University’s Graduate Institute for Taiwan Studies (GIFTS), had been scheduled to visit Taiwan last Thursday for academic exchanges, Taiwan’s United Daily News (UDN) reported.
A separate delegation, led by the president of Xiamen University, had been scheduled to visit Taiwan today, but that trip was also postponed pending approval, according to the report on Friday.
Taiwanese authorities postponed the visits saying the delegations’ applications had yet to be approved, and that the trips would be pushed back to October, the report said.
UDN cited sources suggesting that the delay might be due to “technical obstacles” created by Taiwanese authorities, and potentially linked to internal disagreements between different departments handling the case.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council – the island’s top cross-strait policy planner – told UDN that the case was still under review in accordance with legal procedures. Taiwan consistently supports “healthy and orderly” cross-strait exchanges, it added.
Taiwan would promote exchanges between think tanks from both sides while taking into consideration the cross-strait situation and the “principle of ensuring national security”, the council was quoted as saying.
GIFTS is a leading mainland think tank on Taiwan affairs. Its delegation had planned to engage in exchanges with the National Chengchi University in Taipei.
Cross-strait exchanges, including academics’ visits to the island, have been severely affected in recent years by the Covid-19 pandemic and cross-strait tensions.
Last year, the number of professional exchanges, including academic ones, was only about 6 per cent of that in 2019, while business exchanges were less than 30 per cent of the 2019 total, according to figures reported by UDN in June.
In July last year, a group of 37 students and instructors from five universities in mainland China visited Taiwan, marking the first major academic delegation to travel to the island in more than three years.

Travel by mainland Chinese to Taiwan for tourism remains largely halted, despite the partial lifting of restrictions to allow residents of the eastern province of Fujian to travel to Taiwan’s Quemoy, also called Kinmen, and Matsu counties.
Beijing has also stepped up military pressure on Taiwan since William Lai Ching-te took over as the island’s leader. Lai, who represents the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, has been described as a “troublemaker” by Beijing, which launched large-scale military exercises days after his inauguration in May.
Last month, Taiwanese political activist Yang Chih-yuan was sentenced to nine years in prison in mainland China on charges of “separatism”, marking the first cross-strait case of its kind and prompting an official travel warning from Taipei.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Like most countries, the United States does not recognise Taiwan as independent but opposes any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Exchanges between the island and mainland China remain far below pre-Covid levels amid tensions and travel restrictions

Exchanges between the island and mainland China remain far below pre-Covid levels amid tensions and travel restrictions