The Presidential Office yesterday said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had asked about the progress of a plan to build a bridge connecting Kinmen with China’s Xiamen, but had not given instructions for its construction.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) told a press conference that “there was a gap between the media report and the truth.”
Wang made the remarks in response to media inquiries about a report in the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday.
The report said Ma asked the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) to expedite the study of a construction project and to present the evaluation report as soon as possible.
The paper said Executive Yuan Secretary-General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) had promised Ma that the Executive Yuan would speed up the process and brief the president at an appropriate time.
The United Daily News reported that the CEPD had said it would complete the evaluation and send it to the Executive Yuan for review by the end of the month.
Wang said that during Ma’s inspection trip to Kinmen on Aug. 24 last year, the president told local residents that there should not be any technical problem building the Kindeng Bridge (金嶝大橋), but that he would like them to consider its political implication and effectiveness.
Ma then asked the CEPD to complete the assessment by the end of last year, Wang said. When Ma had dinner with Hsueh and other staffers at the Taipei Guest House on Wednesday evening, Wang said Ma inquired about the progress of the evaluation report.
“The president did not instruct the Executive Yuan to build the bridge,” Wang said yesterday.
When asked whether Ma supported the construction of the bridge, Wang said it would depend on the result of the assessment report.
At a separate setting, Cabinet Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said the CEPD was still evaluating the possibility of building the bridge and that the Executive Yuan did not have any particular opinions regarding the issue.
The government would only support policies that would benefit the country, he said.
Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) yesterday said that convenience should not be the only factor considered for the construction of the bridge, because both sides of the Strait have sign ed agreements to launch direct air and sea transportation links.
“The matter also concerns the economy and living environment,” he said. “We think such a project should be carefully assessed by the CEPD.”
Liu said his understanding was that the bridge could cost NT$10 billion (US$297 million) to build.
When asked for comment, KMT Legislator Shuai Hua-ming (帥化民), a member of the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee, said a bridge could become a symbol of cross-strait peace.
“Under the rule of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), [Kinmen] was an important military site because we were planning to retake China,” Shuai said. “But we are no longer planning to retake China ... this [bridge] could be seen as an important development of cross-strait reconciliation.”
Other legislators, however, were worried that construction of the bridge would lead to Taiwanese taxpayers’ money being spent on helping China develop Xiamen.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
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