China banned individual travel to Taiwan since August 1 in an attempt to undermine the Taiwanese economy and influence the election, but Taiwan's tourism sector should be wary of the CCP's strategy.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/08/07
By: Milo Hsieh

As China banned individual tourists from traveling to Taiwan on August 1, the media once again rushed

to cover the “mounting tension” between China and Taiwan. 

The policy, aimed towards hitting Taiwan’s tourism sector to hurt vote counts for the current Tsai administration, seeks to send one message: “submit to our claim over you, or else.” 

China's weaponization of tourism is nothing new. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had used a similar tactic of tourism control in 2016 when President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was elected. 

In China’s latest defense white paper, the DPP was directly labeled as “Taiwan independence" separatists, despite President Tsai having just faced a challenging primary battle within the party against factions who attacked her as not being pro-independent enough.    [FULL  STORY]