Taipei, Jan 27 (IANS) Taiwanese citizens who went missing, were arrested or questioned or faced restriction on personal liberties in China in 2025 were four times higher than the previous year, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Tuesday, the local media reported.
As many as 221 Taiwanese nationals who visited China in 2025 were reported missing, detained and questioned or their personal freedom was restricted, showcasing a rise from 55 in the previous year, according to the council, Taiwan's leading daily Taipei Times reported.
It stated that reopening group tours for people of Taiwan to China would be risky as they would have no way to seek help from Taipei after Beijing shut down talks between the "two associations for tourism."
Taiwan and China had established the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association and China’s Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Strait to facilitate tourism coordination, the newspaper reported.
The MAC stated that Taiwanese who visited China in case of any travel contingency used to contact the two associations for assistance. It stated that Taiwanese travelling to China will no longer have same safety protections and could face increased risk when travelling to Beijing as communication between the two associations has been suspended.
It called on the two associations to begin dialogue before restarting cross-strait tourism and termed the safety and interests of Taiwanese citizens main priority of MAC, Taipei Times reported.
MAC stated last October that the 'freedom of movement ' of 132 Taiwanese nationals was restricted in China from January 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025, with over 70 per cent of the cases tied to fraud, Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) reported.
Among those restricted, 93 were related to fraud cases, 13 involved in religious activities, one national security case, with 25 miscellaneous incidents, MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh stated in a press briefing, according to Central News Agency (CNA).
During the same period, 61 Taiwanese "went missing" and 19 were taken for interrogation, raising the total number of cases involving loss of contact, questioning or restrictions on freedom of movement to 212, Liang said.
--IANS
akl/as
