Amendments to current policies that limit travel via the small three links to long-term residents of Kinmen and Matsu could be changed in the near future, according to the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu (
Wu explained yesterday that the council had already begun work on plans to allow residents of Kinmen and Matsu whose household registration is no longer on the two islands to travel to China via the links.
The small three links allow for direct cross-strait travel between Kinmen and Matsu and the Chinese cities Xiamen and Fuzhou. Currently, a resident's household registration must be in Kinmen or Matsu for more than half a year before the resident can travel via the links.
"The number of people travelling from Taiwan to China has far surpassed that of China to Taiwan," Wu said. "We will therefore wait until China implements plans to allow Chinese residents to tour Kinmen and Matsu through the small three links before taking this any further."
China recently announced that it was ready to lift bans on Chinese residents to allow them to tour Kinmen and Matsu, but the policy has yet to be implemented.
The council's records indicate that from January to August this year, 121,540 Taiwanese traveled from Kinmen to Xiamen via the small three links, while just 6,733 Chinese residents traveled to Kinmen. Travel patterns between Matsu and Fuzhou are similar, with 5,420 Taiwanese traveling to China and 1,763 Chinese coming to Taiwan.
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