{"id":69184,"date":"2016-12-16T19:27:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T19:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=69184 "},"modified":"2016-12-16T19:27:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T19:27:00","slug":"69184-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=69184","title":{"rendered":"China Bars Taiwan Tourists From Tibet Amid Ongoing Row With Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">2016-12-15<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2016\/50\/201612150bcf5b85-21c7-4a5c-8702-4b329a141309(1).jpeg\" alt=\"201612150bcf5b85-21c7-4a5c-8702-4b329a141309(1).jpeg (622&#215;474)\" \/><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">China<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> has been withholding granting to tourists from Taiwan a document known as &#8220;permission letter to enter Tibet&#8221; in an apparent retaliation for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s phone call with Taiwan President Tsai Ingwen.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Tourists from Taiwan are being refused entry into Tibet amid worsening tensions with mainland China following a phone call between the island&#8217;s president and Donald Trump, they told RFA on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Several Taiwan travel agencies said that their customers are no longer being issued with the necessary entry permits into the Himalayan region.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;In order to enter Tibet, visitors from Taiwan must apply for a permission letter to enter Tibet,&#8221; an employee at one of the travel agencies said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;We have sent two tour groups there this month, but neither has been approved for the letter,&#8221; the employee said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;They haven&#8217;t given us a direct response regarding the reason for this, but we can&#8217;t take any more bookings now.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">She said Hong Kong residents, who are Chinese citizens, are able to visit Tibet without the letter, if they have a permit to cross the internal immigration border to mainland China.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;I think you can get into most other places with a Taiwan Compatriot Card without any problems,&#8221; she said, referring to the Permit for Taiwan Residents Visiting the Mainland that is issued to Taiwan tourists via their travel agencies.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">An employee at a second travel agency said their groups had run into similar difficulties.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;We have been affected by this too,&#8221; the employee said. &#8220;We aren&#8217;t taking tour groups to Tibet any more.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;The mainland has suddenly refused to accept our applications any more,&#8221; she said. &#8220;They don&#8217;t always give us a clear reason.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;It&#8217;s the same whether you go with a tour group or as an individual traveler,&#8221; she said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Permission letter required<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">An employee who answered the phone at a hotel in Tibet said nobody is allowed into the region without an additional permit, known as the &#8220;permission letter to enter Tibet.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;If you don&#8217;t have that letter, then I&#8217;m afraid we can&#8217;t accept your booking,&#8221; the employee said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">And a Tibetan travel agency employee confirmed that the situation has changed.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;It&#8217;s not just our company; and it certainly wasn&#8217;t our company&#8217;s decision,&#8221; the employee said. &#8220;But we have received notification to this effect.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Taiwan<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8216;s 23 million people have never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, but they travel to mainland China under special permits that describe the democratic island as a province of China.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The barring of travel by Taiwanese tour groups to Tibet comes soon after the island&#8217;s president Tsai Ing-wen made a congratulatory phone call to U.S. president-elect Trump, riling Beijing, which is warning that bilateral ties with Washington could be jeopardized.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Trump also questioned the one-China policy, which forbids China&#8217;s diplomatic partners from maintaining diplomatic ties with Taipei, saying it could potentially be used as a bargaining counter on trade issues.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8216;One China&#8217; or nothing<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">His comments came after four decades of consensus between Beijing and Washington that Taiwan, where the defeated Kuomintang nationalist government fled after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong&#8217;s communists in 1949, is part of a single, Chinese territory, but currently under a different government.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang warned that countries that don&#8217;t exclude Taiwan can&#8217;t have diplomatic links with Beijing.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;Adhering to the one-China policy is the prerequisite and basis on which China develops relations of friendly cooperation with any countries in the world,&#8221; Geng told a regular news briefing in Beijing.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;There is only one China in the world and Taiwan is a part of China, and the government of the People&#8217;s Republic of China is the sole legitimate government that represents China,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Ties with Taiwan have soured since Tsai&#8217;s election victory earlier this year after she failed to endorse a 1992 agreement recognizing that Taiwan is merely a part of China currently being ruled by a different government.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which swept to power earlier this year amid fears of growing Chinese influence over Taiwan under her predecessor Ma Ying-jeou, still has a staunchly pro-independence wing, in spite of repeated warnings of military intervention from Beijing.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Hu Ping, the New York-based editor of the Chinese-language monthly Beijing Spring, said Trump&#8217;s phone call with Tsai and his subsequent comments on the one-China policy has provoked a &#8220;strong reaction&#8221; in Chinese political circles.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;Trump&#8217;s phone call with Tsai Ing-wen changed a long-term precedent in the U.S.-China relationship,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think we will continue to see further developments on this issue.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;It&#8217;s likely that a hard-line policy on Trump&#8217;s part will leave [Chinese president] Xi Jinping at a loss,&#8221; Hu said.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Reported by Wong Lok-to for RFA&#8217;s Cantonese Service, and by Xi Wang for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><br \/><\/p>  <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/taiwan-tibet-12152016143744.html\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For detail please visit here<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;Several Taiwan travel agencies said that their customers are no longer being issued with the necessary entry permits into the Himalayan region.&quot;In order to enter Tibet, visitors from Taiwan must apply for a permission letter to enter Tibet,&quot; an employee at one of the travel agencies said.&lt;\/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}