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Taiwan approves visas for Chinese at frontier

Chinese tourists visiting the two frontline islands of Kinmen and Matsu will be granted landing visas or multi-entry visas by the end of this month, but they won’t be permitted to enter Taiwan proper with the visas, an official said yesterday.

The measure was part of a proposal aimed at establishing closer ties across the Taiwan Strait and approved by the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday.

Also included in the proposal were measures to normalize the small three links — direct communications, transportation and trade links between Kinmen and Matsu and Fuzhou, Xiamen and Quanzhou in China’s Fujian Province.

Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛), whose agency drafted the proposal, said it was in line with the “peace statement” President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) made to mark the recent 50th anniversary of the bombardment of Kinmen.

In light of recent efforts at cross-strait reconciliation, peace and cooperation, Kinmen, Matsu, Xiamen, Fuzhou and the areas surrounding Fujian will gradually become a “common living circle,” for which it would be necessary to normalize the small three links, Lai said.

Under the proposal, Chinese tourists and experts invited to participate in cultural and academic exchanges would be allowed to visit Taiwan via Kinmen and Matsu starting at the end of this month.

Currently, the traveling route is confined only to residents of Fujian Province.

“That way, we can provide Chinese residents more convenient channels to travel to the country and help them reduce transportation costs,” Lai said.

The government will also lift tariffs on low-volume trade of agricultural and aquatic products imported from China to Kinmen and Matsu and simplify customs procedures in a bid to put an end to the prevalent smuggling of such products, Lai said.

Starting in the middle of October, the measures applied to Kinmen and Matsu will be extended to Penghu, for which the links are currently implemented on a case-by-case basis, Lai said.

Lai said that the government was confident that Taiwan and China would start direct sea transportation by the end of this year and that liberalization of the small three links would help the islands withstand any economic impact this may have on them.
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