President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised yesterday to grant visa-on-arrival or multiple-entry-visa rights to Chinese tourists visiting Kinmen and Matsu, while vowing to turn Kinmen into a “peace square” across the Taiwan Strait in commemoration of the Aug. 23 Artillery Bombardment 50 years ago.
The government opened the small three links between Kinmen, Matsu and cities in China in 2000. Ma’s administration expects to attract more Chinese tourists in Taiwan and boost the local economy in the two areas by relaxing the visa application process.
The president, who visited Kinmen yesterday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 823 Artillery Bombardment, also promised to complete an evaluation report by the end of this year on the construction of a bridge connecting Kinmen and China’s Xiamen, an idea proposed by local politicians in Kinmen seeking to revive the economy.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
“After we open direct air and sea links, Kinmen and Xiamen will be doors of reconciliation, doors of peace and doors of cooperation across the Taiwan Strait,” Ma said, addressing the 823 Artillery Bombardment commemoration ceremony yesterday.
The 823 Artillery Bombardment refers to a months-long battle initiated by China in 1958, in which China fired as many as 57,500 shells on Kinmen within the opening two-hour period of what became months of intense shelling of the island.
A total of 456 soldiers were killed and 1,972 injured during the exchanges and the shelling claimed 162 civilian lives and wounded 638.
Speaking to veterans and their family members at the ceremony, Ma defended his administration’s efforts to strengthen cross-strait exchanges and said the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should learn from the past and join efforts to build a peaceful future.
“We should try our best to turn Kinmen from a cross-strait killing field into a peace square in the 21st century,” Ma said. “The two sides of the Taiwan Strait have wasted the past half century because of continuous confrontation. Can we afford to waste more time and not take the opportunity to push for peaceful cross-strait relations?”
Ma reiterated his promise of maintaining the national defense budget at no less than 3 percent of GDP to maintain the country’s national defense force, while stressing the importance of developing a peaceful cross-strait relationship in the future.
The president further thanked a group of veterans from the US, who had joined the war to help Taiwan in its fight against China under the US-ROC defense treaty, and pledged to continue pushing for better US-Taiwan relations.
In response to Ma’s comments, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday criticized the proposal to grant Chinese tourists visas on arrival or multiple entry visas when visiting Kinmen and Matsu.
The legislators aired concerns that the proposals would jeopardize national security and asked the government to abandon them.
“The visa proposal is tantamount to opening the country up to China,” DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said.
He said most foreign countries have strict standards when dealing with Chinese travel documents, while some even refuse to allow Chinese from certain provinces to enter their countries. Taiwan should not allow Chinese to enter Kinmen and Matsu without setting any conditions.
DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) said it was unthinkable that while the US and other countries do not grant Chinese visas on arrival, Taiwan would decide to offer its rival such treatment.
He said the measure would endanger Taiwan’s security because more and more Chinese would enter the country using such an easy route and become illegal immigrants or work for Chinese intelligence services.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
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