Opposition lawmakers succeeded late Thursday in pushing through an amendment allowing limited numbers of visitors from Taiwan to enter China directly via offshore islands.
Currently, only residents of the islands of Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu are permitted to sail directly to two selected ports in China's Fujian Province.
In a last-ditch effort to pass legislation before the end of the current session, which ended yesterday, legislators enacted an amendment to the existing Offshore Islands Development Act (離島建設條例), allowing Taiwan residents to directly travel to China via the three outlying islands.
The amendment is to expand the "small three links (小三通)," which were coolly received by China since their opening last year.
The government initiated the policy allowing direct trade, postal and shipping transport between Kinmen and Matsu and Fuzhou and Xiamen ports in China's Fujian province on Jan. 2, 2001.
KMT legislator Tsao Er-chung (
Tsao said that expanding the "small three links" will not only make it more convenient for Taiwanese to travel to the China, it will also help accelerate economic prosperity for residents on the three islands.
Kinmen Magistrate Lee Chu-feng (
Lee said that the new policy will not only help save immeasurable amounts of money that would be spent on transit trips via a "third place," such as Hong Kong or Macau, it would also help increase the competitiveness of Taiwanese businesspeople operating across the Strait, as well as help boost the economies of the outlying islands.
In response to the amendment, Chen Ming-tung (
The MAC is reluctant to open direct travel via the offshore islands despite strong calls from local businesses and the tourism sector to cut costs and save time.
"Any relaxation has to be made in consideration of overall planning involving cross-strait relations, national security and transportation infrastructure on those islands," Chen said.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
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