Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen is playing a dangerous game at the risk of further straining cross-Straits ties. Since her inauguration last May, the Democratic Progressive Party chairwoman has been trying the Chinese mainland's patience by equivocating over the one-China policy and attempting to weaken the cross-Straits relationship, which compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits attach great value to.

Responding to reports that Taiwan authorities are considering easing the restrictions on tourists from the mainland, An Fengshan, spokesman for the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Wednesday that only better cross-Straits ties can reverse the trend of the continuing drop in mainland visitors to the island.

The decline in mainland holidaymakers in Taiwan and near-frozen official exchanges can hardly be described as a surprise. But that did not stop Tsai from making a phone call in December to Donald Trump, then US president-elect, to congratulate him on his election win. Nor did it dissuade DPP legislator Gao Jyh-peng from proposing the removal of the images of Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925) and Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975), late leaders of the opposition Kuomintang, from banknotes.