During a trip to the southern port city of Kaohsiung to preside over the sending off of the first vessel to mainland China from Taiwan under the new services, President Ma Ying-jeou stated he was pleased that direct air and shipping transport links across the Taiwan Strait had been launched so quickly, and put this down to the combined efforts of Taipei and Beijing.
"The opening of direct air and shipping links means the two sides are no longer hostile toward each other and are willing to replace confrontation with dialogue and conflict with reconciliation," said Ma, whose swearing-in seven months ago marked a turning point in cross-strait relations.
The first vessels to make the cross-strait journey departed at 10 a.m. from Keelung, Taichung, and Kaohsiung for 10 mainland Chinese ports, including Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen. Their cargoes included chemicals, man-made fiber, machinery, electronic products and 1,200 metric tons of oranges. Chinese mainland vessels also set off across the strait, leaving Shanghai and Tianjin.
The services are scheduled in accordance with the four agreements signed Nov. 4 in Taipei between Chairman Chiang Pin-kung of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation and his mainland counterpart, Chen Yunlin of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait. Depending on demand, they are expected to increase to 60 shipments per month.
According to Chiang, the direct services will save costs and generate new business opportunities at a time when both Taiwan and mainland China are experiencing the pinch of the global economic slowdown. "Direct transport links will contribute greatly to the economic development of both sides," he said.
Local shipping industry analysts believe this achievement has the potential to save companies on the island tens of billions of New Taiwan dollars in annual transportation costs, while transforming the nation into a regional operations center. Direct cross-strait shipping will save 16 to 27 hours per trip, resulting in cost savings of 15 to 30 percent. In addition, Taiwan's ships will no longer have to detour via Japan.
An official from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said that Taiwan has opened 12 ports to the mainland, but cross-strait shipping traffic is mainly using ports in Danshui, Kaohsiung, Keelung and Taichung. The Chinese mainland has opened 63 ports to Taiwan's ships for both cargo and passengers, with the bulk of services using Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin and Xiamen.
The new air links see weekend charters expanded to a daily service, with the two sides operating a total of 108 round-trip flights per week, up from 36 previously. There are also now 60 cross-strait chartered cargo flights per month. Each side may add another 15 flights during the peak season from October to November.
According to Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration, airports in Hualien, Kaohsiung, Kinmen, Penghu, Taipei, Taichung, Taitung and Taoyuan are cleared to receive flights from mainland Chinese airlines. But due to commercial demand, only Kaohsiung, Taichung, Taipei and Taoyuan airports will handle these services for now. The number of mainland airports from which flights can depart for Taiwan has also been increased from 16 to 21.
Travel time between Taipei and Shanghai has been reduced by more than an hour to around 90 minutes. This is because carriers in Taiwan and mainland China now fly a direct flight path in a northern line across the Taiwan Strait, eliminating the need for flight paths via Hong Kong airspace--a detour previously required because of military security concerns in Taiwan among other issues.
CAA Director-General Lee Long-wen explained that with the daily flights in operation, a traveler could fly from Taipei to Beijing or Shanghai within half a day. "A passenger now spends less time flying from Taipei to Shanghai than to travel by high-speed train from Taipei to Kaohsiung," he said.
The National Immigration Agency stated Dec. 16 that the number of inbound travelers to Taiwan had increased significantly on the first day of the service, with a total of 30,372 arrivals touching down at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. This represented an increase of 4,293 from the same day last week when there were 26,079 arrivals.
The direct link on postal services will also speed up the delivery of letters and parcels between the two sides. Wu Min-yu, president of the Taiwan-based Chunghwa Post Co. Ltd., sent out a letter to Liu Andong, president of the mainland's China Post Corp. Dec. 15, marking the start of direct postal services between Taiwan and mainland China. Over the past two decades, cross-strait mail had to pass via a third destination. It now only takes a few hours for letters to make the journey via the direct postal service. According to Chunghwa, postage rates will remain unchanged.
Write to Eric Chao at clchao@mail.gio.gov.tw