What changed
Taiwanese actor Ming Dao presented a pennant to a Shanghai traffic-police assistant after the officer found and returned a bag lost by Ming Dao’s team. On November 4, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office used the episode, alongside surging Xiamen–Kinmen ferry traffic, to promote mainland China as safe, culturally appealing and full of opportunity.
Why it matters
The returned bag is a small incident, but Beijing is treating it as a political picture: everyday security as a reason for Taiwanese people to visit, work and possibly build lives on the mainland.
The numbers give that message more weight. By October 26, the Xiamen–Kinmen route had carried more than 1.74 million passengers in 2026, including nearly 1.4 million Taiwan travelers. Both figures had already surpassed the route’s totals for all of 2025, setting a new annual high since service resumed in 2023.
The office also said more than 70,000 Taiwan travelers entering through the route this year were visiting the mainland for the first time, up more than 70% year on year. Summer monthly traffic topped 200,000 for the first time.
That creates a clear contrast in the political messaging. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council continues to maintain an orange travel warning for mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, while Beijing is inviting more Taiwanese people, especially young people, to experience the mainland directly. Whether the traffic growth continues, and how travelers weigh that warning, remains uncertain.
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