First Taiwan-China Voyage in 50 Years

X I A M E N, China, Jan. 2, 2001 -- A boat from the Taiwanese island fortressof Kinmen and another from the islet of Matsu arrived in Chinatoday, making the first legal direct crossings from Taiwan inmore than 50 years.

Two dozen uniformed police officers and officials greeted theKinmen boat as it arrived a few minutes before noon carrying 190Taiwanese officials and community leaders. Some passengers wavedand about 200 Chinese spectators gathered near the pier to watch asthe vessel arrived quietly under sunny skies.

The ship from Matsu, just off China’s southeastern coast,arrived almost simultaneously in another Chinese port, Taiwanesemedia reported from the vessel.

The ships were the first to cross legally from outlyingTaiwanese islands since Taiwan and China separated in a bloodycivil war that ended in 1949.

First Attempt Turned Back

Taiwan relaxed a ban on travel between the two islands and Chinaon New Year’s Day. But a Taiwanese tourist boat on what was to bethe first crossing Monday was forced to turn back by bad weatherand high seas.

Many Taiwanese hope that the relaxing of travel restrictionsfrom the two islands will ease tensions with China.

A large crowd celebrated and a high school band dressed in blue,green and red satin costumes banged gongs and drums, and didtraditional dragon dances, as the Tai Wu left Kinmen for theChinese mainland. The vessel is named after the tallest mountain inXiamen, where it docked.

“This is such an unimaginable event, and we’re extremelyexited,” Gung Cheng-mao, 53, a businessman, said in Kinmen. Herecalled that China had once bombed his island almost every day inthe 1950s and that one shell had crashed through his family’s home.The boat’s voyage from Kinmen represents a great, historical changefor the better, he said.

Chen Shui-tsai, the Kinmen county commissioner leading thedelegation aboard the Tai Wu, told reporters that in the future hisisland should be used as the location for the first-ever summit bythe leaders of China and Taiwan to end their long-standingdifferences.

“We don’t think this event today is just about Kinmen,” hesaid. “It’s a huge event for the whole country.”

Horse of the Sea

On Matsu, just off the coast of China, more than 500 residentsboarded a ship for the Chinese port of Fuzhou. Government officialswaved from the harbor as the ship Taima, which means Taiwanesehorse, steamed away. Passengers aboard the vessel were worshippersof the goddess Matsu, the patron of fishermen popular in Taiwan andsoutheastern China.

Matsu and Kinmen are the only parts of Taiwan that are openingthe direct trading and shipping links with China.

Taiwan opened the links between its two small islands and Chinawithout talking to Beijing, which has grudgingly accepted the movebut hasn’t said how much it will cooperate. So, everyone planned toclosely watch how the two ships were be greeted in Fuzhou andXiamen, cities in the southeast Chinese province of Fujian.

Taiwan’s cautious, wait-and-see attitude was evident in Kinmen,where John Deng, vice chairman of Taiwan’s Mainland AffairsCouncil, responsible for China policy, was the only official fromthe federal government to appear in public. “We hope we can usethis as a useful experience to expand, facilitate and expeditelarger scale issues,” he told reporters.

Next Step: Direct Links?

If all goes well, the government has said it will make an evenbigger move: opening direct air and shipping traffic between Chinaand the main island of Taiwan, separated by the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait.

Now, Taiwanese who do business in China—Taiwan’s No. 2 marketfor trade and investment—can’t travel or ship their goodsdirectly to the mainland. They must go through Hong Kong, Macau oranother third port, creating great inconvenience and expense. Manybelieve opening the “big links” would create one of the world’smost booming trading zones.

Before the big links can happen, the two sides will have to holdhigh-level negotiations — something they don’t seem ready to dosoon.

On Monday, the ill-fated first voyage from Kinmen toward Xiamenwas halted by rough seas and high winds.