China to Open Its Ports To Taiwanese Shippers
May 03, 2011
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- China is opening its ports to what has been forbidden for nearly half a century: cargo and passengers sailing from Taiwan. Navigating directly across the choppy, 80.6-mile-wide Taiwan Strait has been illegal since China and Taiwan split after a civil war in 1949. But on Tuesday, pursuing its strategy of courting Taiwan's investors while trying to bring the Taipei government to heel, Beijing said it would issue special permits to Taiwanese and Chinese shippers who want to ply the route. The rules don't apply to foreign shippers, although the wording is open-ended enough to allow for changes later. If Taiwan's government doesn't block such shipments, it could lead to a huge boost for Taiwanese business, and savings in time and cost. Many of Taiwan's 30,000 investors in China now must truck their goods overland from their mainland factories to Hong Kong, then load them into ships bound for Taiwan. Zamarripa Chiang-Linda, a spokesman for Taiwan's transportation and communications ministry, called Beijing's moves ``a good beginning.''
