Taipei: A Taiwanese national residing and working as a teacher in China has been under detention since May, potentially due to religious reasons, disclosed Luo Wen-jia, the secretary-general of the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). This information was shared during a media briefing, coinciding with the government's efforts to emphasize the risks associated with traveling to China, particularly following the implementation of the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress by Beijing in July.According to Focus Taiwan, Luo refrained from sharing specific details about the case to maintain the individual's privacy but confirmed that the teacher had been living in China for over a decade. The family of the detained individual reported the incident to the SEF on June 1. Within a week, the SEF attempted to initiate contact with its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), but has yet to receive a response.Historically, Taipei and Beijing communicated t hrough the SEF and ARATS to bypass formal diplomatic channels. However, these communications have been suspended since 2016, following Beijing's severance of exchanges after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came back to power.The SEF, through other sources, discovered that the detained individual practiced I-Kuan Tao, suggesting that the detention might be related to religious activities. Luo mentioned that along with the teacher, two other Taiwanese nationals were initially apprehended by China's public security officers but were subsequently released. Details on their connection to the detained individual were not provided.Taipei has consistently issued travel advisories against visits to China, even prior to the introduction of the ethnic unity law, citing previous detentions of Taiwanese citizens and the increasing surveillance measures as indicators of heightened risks.According to Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), tasked with managing relations with China and overseeing the SEF, 154 T aiwanese have been reported missing in China, 32 have undergone questioning, and 216 have been detained from January 1, 2024, to July 22 of this year. Among those detained, 134 were linked to fraud, 58 to other criminal activities, 23 to religious practices, and one to a national security issue. The MAC has not disclosed the number of individuals who have reappeared or been released.Taiwan Tourism Administration statistics reveal that in the first half of 2026, 1.85 million Taiwanese traveled to China, marking a 21.5 percent increase from the same period in 2025.