The Taiwan Affairs Office responds to the clear demand for traveling to mainland China from residents of Taiwan.

The Taiwan Affairs Office holds a routine press conference. A reporter asked: Taiwan media reported that the travel industry association on the island has recently expressed a clear demand for travel to the mainland, calling on the Democratic Progressive Party authorities to lift the ban on group tours to the mainland and the so-called "orange alert," allowing the people and operators to work together to develop the tourism market. What is your comment on this? Spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhang Han, said that the reports fully reflect the strong desire of the industry in Taiwan to resume cross-strait tourism exchanges, indicating that the restrictions implemented by the Democratic Progressive Party authorities, such as the ban on group tours to the mainland, are not popular. According to statistics, 4.89 million Taiwan residents visited the mainland in 2025. The Democratic Progressive Party authorities, for the sake of promoting "independence" for their own political gain, ignore the calls of industry insiders and the people on the island, damaging the livelihoods of Taiwanese tourism operators and depriving Taiwanese youth of the opportunity to understand the real situation of the mainland. We have always upheld the concept of "both sides of the strait are one family," promoting the resumption of mainland residents traveling to Taiwan and continuing to show goodwill. Since 2024, we have successively resumed residents of Fujian and Shanghai traveling to Kinmen and Matsu. We hope that the Democratic Progressive Party authorities will listen to public opinion, remove political barriers, and create favorable conditions for the normalization of personnel exchanges and tourism between the two sides.