GoKawiilMainland Chinese companies among the 219 listed mainland exhibitors at Computex 2026 in Taipei have been kept off the show floor by stalled entry permits, the South China Morning Post reported today, as the four-day trade show officially opened. Staff at listed exhibitors reportedly told the publication that nobody on their teams obtained an entry permit from Taiwanese authorities this year, with applications either left pending or met with last-minute requests for documentation that was difficult to supply on short notice. No formal rejections have been issued, mirroring a similar permit freeze that hit April's Taipei AMPA auto-parts show.
SCMP spoke to two mainland residents at listed exhibitors and a third mainland citizen employed by a multinational, all speaking anonymously, given the political sensitivity, who described their applications stuck in limbo while colleagues from other regions were given access. Two travel agencies that handle cross-strait trips told SCMP that none of their clients, including official exhibitors, secured approvals this year.
Emdoor, a mainland VR and electronics maker that has exhibited at Computex for more than a decade, was an exception and said it obtained permits without difficulty. Taiwan's National Immigration Agency, which processes the applications, told SCMP it "reviews such applications in accordance with established procedures and consults with the relevant authorities."
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Mainland nationals need travel documents from both Beijing and Taipei, and the people who spoke to SCMP said the Beijing side wasn’t the holdup. Since 2023, mainlanders have been able to apply directly to the National Immigration Agency for short-term exhibition permits, but anyone whose sponsor or activity touches high-tech sectors such as semiconductors must first secure separate special approval, according to advisories from immigration law firms Fragomen and BAL.
Those advisories also note that the number of staff a company may send is capped under revenue-based quotas. That being a discretionary decision, rather than an outright ban, is what allows Taiwanese authorities to indefinitely delay an application without having to officially reject it.
Taiwan has been taking an increasingly harder stance on mainland access to its tech sector this year, having launched its first formal crackdown on illicit AI hardware exports to China in May. Taiwanese courts are also currently prosecuting TSMC trade-secret theft under the National Security Act.
We’ve also seen several reports this year describing intensifying Chinese efforts to poach Taiwanese chip talent, set against more than 420 Chinese military aircraft operating near the island in the first quarter. Mainland travel to Taiwan has fallen accordingly: 58,708 mainland residents visited in the first quarter of 2026, down 13% year over year, according to Taiwan's interior ministry.
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