BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland
will continue to push Taiwan to allow mainland residents to visit the island
despite the deadlock in cross-strait tourism negotiation, a mainland official
said on Wednesday.
"To allow mainland tourists to visit Taiwan is our
established policy...And we will, as always, continue to push for the early
realization of it," Yang Yi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State
Council, said.
The mainland removed the ban on mainland residents to
visit Taiwan in May 2005 in order to expand people-to-people contacts and help
boost Taiwan's tourism industry.
Since October 2006, non-governmental tourism
organizations on both sides of the Taiwan Straits have conducted six rounds of
talks and reached consensus on major technical issues, but have been unable to
conclude a final agreement.
Yang said the mainland had demonstrated great
sincerity and flexibility during the negotiations and offered many practical
solutions. "It's fair to say that we have tried untiringly and made our greatest
efforts.
"The mainland should not be blamed for the failure of
opening Taiwan-bound tourist routes to the mainland residents," he said.
Early this year, mainland tourism chief Shao Qiwei
accused Taiwan authorities of setting up obstacles in the way of mainland
tourists who want to visit Taiwan.
Shao said it was necessary to point out that mainland
residents traveling to Taiwan were not taking country-to-country trips.
He urged the Taiwan authorities to "follow the will
of the people and adopt a practical and positive attitude" in solving the
remaining problems relating to cross-strait travel.
Currently, mainland residents cannot travel directly
to Taiwan, but they can travel to Taiwan from outside the mainland. The mainland
government has been pushing for the "three direct links" of transport, mail and
trade.
Experts have estimated that Taiwan would reap
revenues of 26.5 billion New Taiwan Dollars (803 million U.S. dollars) annually
if it hosted a 1,000 mainland tourists a day.
Taiwan tourism businesses are ready for the imminent
arrival of mainland tourists, Taiwan media have reported.
Taiwan residents have made 42.4 million trips to the
Chinese mainland since 1987, when Taiwan allowed its residents to visit
relatives on the mainland. Mainland residents made 1.5 million trips to Taiwan
in the same period.
