In a dovish move, ROC announces the reopening of direct flights with Mainland China which were shut down at the beginning of COVID. The PRC indicated earlier in 2022 that they were ready for the resumption of direct flights but were turned down by DPP due to their need to set the narrative in the 2022 local elections. What is interesting is that ROC announced this on the same day Xi was re-elected as PRC Prez for his third term. This is clearly not a coincidence and along with DPP Prez Tsai telling McCarthy not to visit ROC, it seems that DPP Prez Tsai is focused on her legacy. It is also likely that in her assessment that rising tensions with PRC might not work to the DPP advantage in 2024 elections unlikely 2020.
Maybe a bit when the first large wave of tourists showed up in 2009. I do not think this is much of a problem these days. Understand that over 1 million people from ROC work and live (at least part-time) on the Mainland so the level of interactions was quite large, especially since 2009. I think this is a problem for Mainland tourists in Japan where they are loved for their money but hated for how they behave. My impression is this has gotten better this past decade but for sure a large number of people in Japan (not associated with the tourist or retail industry of course) would prefer if the Mailand Chinese tourist are not there.
1 million people? do you have the data? I don't think it is such many people work there.
