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BEIJING: The Chinese government says most Taiwanese can travel to China without worries and can come “with enthusiasm,” denouncing Taiwan Warn its citizens not to go there The following Beijing threatens to execute ‘stubborn’ separatists.
Taiwan’s government this week raised its travel warning for China, telling people not to travel there unless absolutely necessary, after China announced legal guidelines that would prosecute pro-independence separatists and, in extreme cases, impose the death penalty.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which considers democratically governed Taiwan its own territory, said in a statement late on Friday (June 28) that the guidelines were only aimed at a very small number of separatists and their “evil words and deeds”.
The office said in a statement that Taiwan is ignoring facts and trying to intimidate its own people through political means, to which China strongly opposes.
“Taiwan compatriots can participate in cross-strait exchanges and cooperation without worrying about traveling to the mainland. They can come and go happily.”
China has vowed to hunt down those it considers Taiwanese separatists wherever they are, but Chinese courts have no jurisdiction over Taiwan and it is unclear how China would enforce any legal judgments outside its borders.
Taiwan’s travel warning also applies to the Chinese cities of Hong Kong and Macau.
China has made no secret of its dislike for Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, whom it considers a “separatist.” After taking office, he held a two-day military exercise China has been regularly sending fighter jets and warships around Taiwan over the past month.
Lai, who has repeatedly proposed talks with China but has been rebuffed, rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims and says only the Taiwanese people can decide their own future.
China says any move by Taiwan to declare formal independence would be grounds for attacking the island.
The Taipei government says Taiwan is already an independent country, the Republic of China, and has no plans to change that fact.
In 1949, China’s Republic of China government fled to Taiwan after losing the civil war against Mao Zedong’s Communists.
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