China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that from Thursday 1 August 2019 it would stop issuing individual travel permits to people in 47 mainland Chinese cities because of the poor state of relations with Taiwan.
The ban on solo travellers visiting Taiwan could result in 700,000 fewer arrivals over the next six months and cost the self-ruled island NT$28 billion (US$900.5 million) in lost revenue, an industry insider said.
Taiwan’s president rebuked China on Thursday over its decision, saying the move aimed to manipulate presidential elections in January.
“Using tourists as political tools would only create antipathy in Taiwanese people,” President Tsai Ing-wen told reporters in the presidential palace in Taipei.
The renewed tension between China and Taiwan is a fallout of the US-China trade conflict.
