The following text is an excerpt from an article in the Magazine “THE DIPLOMAT”.

25 March 2025

“Hey, I heard there’s a free travel group to Hainan for Taiwanese people aged 18 to 40. If you’re a first-time traveler, it’s even better,” Jeff, a Taiwanese exchange student in China, told me.

“Oh, and it’s 100 percent free,” he added.

Our journey started with a five-hour bus ride from Macau to Leizhou, an obscure city in southern Guangdong. According to Metroverse, an urban economy tracker by Harvard University, Leizhou ranks 264th in GDP per capita among 348 Asian cities.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by Cao Kangwu, Leizhou’s deputy mayor and a member of its municipal committee, along with other Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They led us to an extravagant roundtable banquet for 30 people – unnecessary for a group composed mainly of students. T

A Propaganda Tour in Disguise

While participants signed up to visit Hainan, expecting beaches and tropical landscapes, the actual itinerary was shrouded in secrecy.

Each evening, we received details for the following day’s schedule, which differed drastically from expectations. Instead of leisure time on Sanya’s beaches, the group was subjected to propagandistic programming.

Read more about the Chinese Propaganda Tours with Taiwanese Students and China’s Interference in Taiwan on:

https://thediplomat.com/2025/03/inside-the-ccp-funded-travel-groups-looking-to-influence-taiwanese