Secessionist activity behind solo travel ban

Individual permits to visit Taiwan first allowed on trial basis in June 2011

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Thursday that it is the island's ruling Democratic Progressive Party's "Taiwan independence" secessionist activities that led to the suspension of individual travel permits to Taiwan from the Chinese mainland.

The DPP has been promoting "Taiwan independence" activities, constantly fomenting hostility toward the mainland and creating confrontation across the Straits, Ma said. "They destroyed the foundation and conditions for individual travel."