Taiwan president wants exchanges with China, sees lack of goodwill

(Reuters)

TAIPEI, Jan 1 – Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Wednesday that he welcomed equal, dignified, healthy and orderly exchanges with China, but wondered whether there was goodwill from Beijing given what he said was their blocking of simple things like tourism.

Lai, who took office in May, has regularly offered talks with China but been rebuffed. China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and detests Lai as a “separatist”. He says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

Speaking at a New Year’s day news conference, Lai said China was blocking normal interactions with restrictions on Chinese tourists visiting or students studying on the island, while similar bans do not apply to Taiwanese going to China.

“But I still want to stress this: Taiwan hopes to have healthy and orderly exchanges with China under the principles of reciprocity and dignity,” he said.

Journalists should ask China why its citizens can freely travel to countries like the United States and Japan, but has all these controls when it comes to Taiwan, Lai added.