Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Last month, China announced that effective Aug. 1, it was banning independent travel to Taiwan, citing the current state of cross-strait relations. Beijing hopes that by harming the nation’s tourism industry, it could gain leverage over Taiwanese politics.

I am a resident of Tainan, one of the nation’s tourism hotspots. In response to Beijing’s move, Tainan Deputy Mayor Wang Shih-ssu (王時思) on Tuesday last week launched the initiative “Free tourism in a free nation.”

As the 2020 US census approaches, the push for Taiwanese-Americans to specify “Taiwanese” as their ethnicity is well under way.

The Taiwanese American Citizens League launched its “Write-in Taiwanese Census 2020 Campaign” earlier this year, and earlier this month the Taiwan Center Foundation of Greater Los Angeles held the annual Miss Taiwanese-American pageant, which was established in 2000 specifically to promote the issue.