BANGKOK (AP) — China said Sunday it would resume some ties it had suspended with Taiwan, including direct flights to cities across China and imports of Taiwanese aquaculture products, as the island’s opposition party leader concludes her visit. The move comes from the top down, through the Taiwan Work Office under China’s Communist Party, which said it would explore a longstanding communication mechanism between the Communist Party and Taiwan’s Kuomingtang Party and facilitate imports that Beijing had banned in recent years.
Who Decides the Terms
The announcement was made as Cheng Li-wun, the head of the Kuomingtang, and China’s President Xi Jinping held a high-profile meeting Friday during which both called for peace without offering specifics. That is the familiar choreography of state power: leaders meet, issue soothing language, and leave the people living under the cross-strait standoff to deal with the consequences. Taiwan is self-ruled but China claims the island as part of its territory.
Relations between China and Taiwan have been tense since 2016, when the Taiwanese public elected Tsai Ing-wen from the Democratic Progressive Party as president. Since then, Beijing cut off most of its official dialogue with Taiwan’s government in the capital Taipei and started sending military planes and vessels towards the island on a daily basis. The machinery of pressure did not stop while the diplomatic channels were shut; it simply shifted into a more openly coercive form.
The list of measures in Sunday’s statement touches on ties that China had suspended in recent years as tensions increased. China plans to resume direct flights for other mainland cities like Xi’an or Urumqi to Taiwan, the statement said, although it remained unclear how the measures will be implemented. China banned individual trips by Chinese people to Taiwan in 2019. Taiwan’s rules now require Chinese visitors to hold a valid resident visa from another country, like the U.S. or the European Union, to apply for a visitor visa.
What Gets Restored, What Gets Controlled
China also said it would work toward construction of a bridge that would connect to Matsu and Kinmen, Taiwanese islands that are closer geographically to China. The project is a longstanding proposal that Beijing has previously announced. The bridge, like the flights, sits inside a larger contest over who gets to define movement, access and connection across the strait.
China banned the import of Taiwanese pineapples in 2021 and since then extended the import ban to products as varied as the grouper fish, squid, tuna and other fruits. After the initial ban on grouper, Taiwan’s Ministry of Agriculture said it approached China about making adjustments to ensure it met import requirements. China replied with a limited list of individual companies that were allowed to sell to China, but without explanation. That is the kind of selective permission that keeps producers guessing while the gate stays in someone else’s hands.
Taiwan added it would “continuously assist farmers and businesses in expanding into overseas markets” in order to diversify risk, according to a statement it issued Saturday. The language points to a familiar survival strategy under pressure from above: when one market is controlled, the people and businesses at the bottom are told to find others.
The Politics of “Peace”
The high-profile meeting Friday between Cheng Li-wun and Xi Jinping ended with both sides calling for peace, but the article offered no specifics on what that would mean in practice. The statement Sunday likewise did not spell out how the resumed flights, imports or communication mechanism would be implemented. In the meantime, the basic structure remains unchanged: China claims Taiwan, Taiwan governs itself, and the population is left navigating the fallout from decisions made by party offices, presidents and ministries.
The latest announcement suggests a partial easing after years of suspended ties, but it also shows how quickly access can be cut off and restored by institutions that treat trade, travel and communication as leverage. The people who move goods, travel, farm and sell are the ones forced to adapt each time the political machinery decides to tighten or loosen its grip.