Taiwan’s government on Thursday urged people to avoid “unnecessary travel” to China after Beijing announced last week guidelines that would impose the death penalty on “diehard” supporters of the island’s independence. The Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan’s top political body in charge of relations with mainland China, raised its travel warning to orange, the second-highest level. If Taiwanese are to travel to China, they are advised to refrain from discussing sensitive topics, photographing military sites, ports and airports, or “carrying books related to politics, history or religion.”
In another sign of Beijing’s hardening, former Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who was abruptly dismissed from his post without any explanation last August and had not been seen in public since then, was expelled from the Party communist, the country’s media reported Thursday. His dismissal, after barely seven months in office, came after a reshuffle at the head of the Chinese army unit responsible for strategic missiles, particularly nuclear ones. This was interpreted as a desire by the Chinese number one, Xi Jinping, to ensure increased loyalty from senior state officials around him with a view, in particular, to an increase in military capabilities. with a view to a possible reconquest of Taiwan in a few years. Tensions are also high at the moment between Beijing and Manila.
