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Kinmen-Quanzhou ferry link already planned, says MAC

Direct shipping links between the outlying island of Kinmen and Quanzhou in the Chinese province of Fujian are already under consideration by the government, the chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.

The Quanzhou-Kinmen shipping links were included in government plans when Taiwan initiated direct shipping links between Kinmen and Matsu islands and Fujian Province on Jan. 1, 2001 -- commonly known as the "three small links" -- MAC Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said.

"It's nothing new in terms of government policy on the development of cross-strait relations," Wu said when commenting on news reports that the Chinese authorities may declare the opening of the Quanzhou-Kinmen link as a goodwill gesture during the on-going economic forum between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing.

Wu said that as a matter of fact, a plan to begin ferry services between Kinmen and Quanzhou was currently under consideration at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC).

Wu made the remarks at a meeting of the Taiwan Solidarity Union's (TSU) caucus to which Vice Premier Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) led an Executive Yuan group to keep the TSU fully abreast of an economic sustainable development forum that the government is planning to convene.

Meanwhile, according to Lin Chih-ming (林志明), director of the transportation ministry's Department of Navigation and Aviation, the ministry is helping the private shipping sector solve navigation problems for the ferry route between Kinmen and Quanzhou.

Lin said a shipping company briefed the ministry about a Kinmen-Quanzhou ferry service route two weeks ago.

A problem the company said it was facing was that when sailing to Quanzhou, because of defense regulations imposed by the Ministry of National Defense the ferry must first head southward before eventually turning north toward Quanzhou, Lin said.

Lin said he was told by the shipping company that by doing this, the one-way trip between Kinmen and Quanzhou would take about 100-120 minutes, much longer than the 70 minutes if the ferry were allowed to sail directly from Kinmen to Quanzhou.

Lin said his office would like to talk with defense ministry officials about the matter.

According to MOTC tallies, as regulations on the "three small links" have been relaxed, the number of people traveling via this channel has increased -- to some 1 million in the second half of last year.
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