Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Ah, Taiwan Gets Chinese Spies and the Special Forces

Be careful what you wish for when it comes to China.

Taiwan will allow up to 3,000 Chinese solo tourists per day to visit Taiwan:

From Sunday Taiwan will raise its quota for individual travellers by 1,000 to 3,000 a day, the government said in a statement after the Cabinet approved the move Thursday.

China passed a law to limit group tours to protect group tours from price gouging and forced shopping sprees.

Back when the group tours started, I worried that an invasion could be preceded by the arrival of a bunch of tour groups from Chinese athletic teams that turn out to be special forces soldiers. Individual tourists would be easier to manage pre-H Hour-wise.

Of course, more individual tourists make it easier for China to ship spies in. But I figured that probably wasn't too difficult to worry about.

Sadly, the increase in individual tourism wasn't matched by a decrease in group tours, as the article notes:

The quota for group tour members remains unchanged at 5,000 a day.

Clearly I should have been more specific in my wish. That's usually how it goes, no?

So Taiwan makes in easier for China to ship in spies (although how much an advantage that is, I do not know) while maintaining the ability to ship in quite a few special forces prior to an invasion.

As I've noted before, if a lot of tour groups with buffed Chinese men with short haircuts who don't seem to talk a lot arrive over several days, the Taiwanese should probably cancel all military leaves and distribute weapons and ammunition.

UPDATE: Thanks to The View from Taiwan for the link.