China's tourism ministry said on Friday that it has begun preparations to resume group tours to Taiwan from Shanghai and Fujian province in the near future, with Taipei saying it welcomed the move.

Taipei's top China affairs official warned that Taiwan's government "will not tolerate" Beijing's active engagement solely with opposition politicians while it refuses dialogue with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's democratically elected administration,

A change to China’s export rules could give Beijing sign off on any deal that would force the internet giant ByteDance to give up TikTok.

Groups from Fujian and Shanghai are the first to be allowed to visit the island in a move Beijing says will help ‘strengthen exchanges’.

Recently, a Chinese vessel damaged underwater cables off the coast of Taiwan. The incident has heightened tensions between the countries, reports Reuters. Taiwan's Coast Guard suspects that a Chinese vessel damaged a cable off the island's northern coast at the end of last week.

Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China (ROC), is an island separated from China by the Taiwan Strait. Mainland China, officially the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is under Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule and asserts that Taiwan is an integral part of its territory, though it has never governed the island.

The president-elect will give the island all the defense systems it has paid for, the incoming national security adviser has said ..

US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival.

China’s efforts to entice more Taiwanese people to get permits to live and work on the mainland is prompting concern in Taipei that Beijing could be laying the groundwork to justify intervention in the self-governing island’s affairs,

Another U.S.-aligned democracy in Asia is mired in political gridlock, with Taiwan’s opposition challenging defense spending aimed at fending off China.

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday welcomed an announcement by Chinese authorities on their plan to resume group travel to Taiwan for residents of Shanghai and its Fujian Province. “The [Taiwanese] government welcomes Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan,” the MAC said in a statement.

“Senior Chinese officials believe the incoming Trump administration will be more hawkish toward China, so Beijing needs to try to take U.S. allies out of Washington’s orbit,” Chen Yuhua, a China studies professor at Akita International University, told VOA in a video interview.