Taiwan raises travel risk warnings for mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau over new anti-separatist rules

Beijing’s guidelines, which came into force last week, could see ‘diehard separatists’ sentenced to death or given life sentences

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Taiwan has warned against “unnecessary travel” to mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:56pm, 27 Jun 2024Updated: 9:34pm, 27 Jun 2024

Taiwan has raised its travel warnings for mainland China – as well as Hong Kong and Macau – after Beijing released new judicial guidelines that could carry the death penalty for “diehard separatists”.

Taipei’s Mainland Affairs Council said the new rules “severely threatened” the personal safety of Taiwan residents.

The updated guidelines raise the warnings for the mainland and two special administrative readings from yellow – for places “requiring special attention” – to orange, the second highest level in the four-tier system.

Residents are now warned to avoid “unnecessary travel”, the same warnings in force for places such as Cambodia, Myanmar and Lebanon.

The council said that if residents “really have a need” to travel to the other side of the Taiwan Strait, they should “avoid getting involved in or discussing sensitive issues and affairs, photographing ports, airports, military exercise venues, and carrying books on politics, history, religion”.

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