Taiwan and China plan to further expand cross-strait tourism by allowing individual travel to the island.
A trial will be conducted during the first half of the year and will start with residents from major cities like Shanghai and Beijing.
I've long mentioned this problem, and noted the pending change from group tours to individual tourists back in January. In that post I also noted a potential bright spot for Taiwan:
One can hope that by being open to Chinese tourists, Taiwan in practice wages information warfare that persuades more Chinese that Taiwan should not be invaded. Whether that outweighs the practical information that Chinese troops and agents can acquire from this effort, and the possibility of shipping in the first wave of an invasion as tourists remains to be seen.
The Chinese people surely believe that Taiwanese would love to reunite with the mainland, if only their government would allow it. This really is an opportunity for the truth to filter into China via these tourist visits. The article I initially linked even hints at this possibility:
There is also the political implication and academics believe that individual travel can help the mainland visitors to have a better understanding of Taiwan.
Chinese Culture University professor George W. Tsai, said, "Travel with tour groups, you get limited contact with the locals by visiting only tourist attractions. But free and easy will allow them to get to know Taiwanese better in every social level."
So remember, Taiwanese people: be friendly, sell them your stuff, and make sure the mainlander tourists understand that you are perfectly happy living a free life in a democracy, separate from China. Peking nationalist-based propaganda only works on the Chinese people on this issue if they believe the Taiwanese pine for the loving embrace of the motherland. If the Chinese hope this tourism offensive will provide lots of information and opportunity to undermine Taiwanese will to defend themselves, the possibility of friendly fire could outweigh the benefits China will receive.
The people of Taiwan will become the first line of defense against a Chinese invasion. Since Taiwan is a democracy, that's pretty fitting, really.
