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Liang Wen-chieh, spokesperson for Taiwan's Mainland Affairs
Council, told reporters the raised travel warning also applied
to the Chinese-run cities of Hong Kong and Macau.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own
territory, has made no secret of its dislike of President Lai
Ching-te, whom it views as a "separatist", and staged two days
of war games after he took office last month.
Last week, announcing new legal guidelines, China threatened to
execute Taiwan independence separatists in extreme cases, a
further ramping up of tensions that drew condemnation from Lai
and his government, as well as the United States.
Liang, making the announcement at a regular news conference in
Taipei, said those guidelines represented a serious threat to
the safety of Taiwanese visiting China, in addition to other
measures China has been taking to strengthen its national
security laws.
"If it is not necessary to go, then don't," he said, adding this
did not amount to a ban on visiting and was about protecting
Taiwan's people and reminding them of the risk rather than being
a "countermeasure".
China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
On Wednesday, asked about concerns that the guidelines could
cause fear for Taiwan's people and not help improve relations,
the office said they were only aimed at a very small number of
independence "diehards' evil words and actions".
China has vowed to go after people it views as Taiwan
separatists wherever they may be, though Chinese courts have no
jurisdiction in Taiwan and it is not clear how China could seek
to enforce any judgments outside its borders.
As to whether China could seek to extradite Taiwanese overseas
who it accused of separatism, Liang said separatism was a
political crime and in this particular case one specific to
China, and that developed countries would not cooperate with
such a request.
"We can't rule out certain countries would cooperate," he added,
without naming any countries.
President Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but been
rebuffed. He rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims and says only
Taiwan's people can decide their future.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Jeanny Kao;Editing by Christina
Fincher and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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