An hour after the shopping mall in the Taipei 101 tower opened its doors on Friday, fewer than 10 customers were wandering its marble floors which just a few months ago had been mobbed with Chinese tourists all day long.
The fall in Chinese tourists is being felt throughout self-ruled Taiwan, triggering a drop in business for hotels and travel agents and prompting the first major protest by the tourism sector at the deteriorating relations with Communist Party rulers in Beijing since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in May.
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its rule.