Chinese mainland to help snow-hit Taiwan compatriots

"The Taiwan Affairs Office is currently looking for Taiwan enterprises suffering snow disasters and would provide biggest possible help to those affected," Yang Yi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, or Cabinet, told a regular news conference.

Tens of millions of people in central and south China's 14 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions are suffering the heaviest snow and sleet and the lowest temperatures in five decades.

The snow has greatly affected homebound people for the upcoming Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, with roads and railways cut and airports iced in.

Yang said the Chinese mainland and Taiwan would arrange 94 cross-Strait charter flights during the upcoming festival, weather permitting, the fifth such flight arrangement since 2003.

The flights will operate from Feb. 2 to Feb. 6 and from Feb. 11to Feb. 15, according to the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC).

In previous years, 12 airline companies, six from each side of the Strait, offered flights during the festival period. The airports involved include Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Taipei and Kaohsiung, according to the CAAC.

This year's Spring Festival, the first day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 7. It is the most important occasion for the Chinese, who traditionally had family reunions at this time.

About 4 million people from Taiwan visit the Chinese mainland annually and an increasing number of Taiwan residents stay on the other side of the Taiwan Strait for business and study. But no direct regular flight is available across the Taiwan Strait, a situation that has held for more than five decades. Normally, passengers must transfer at Hong Kong or Macao, costing more time and money.

Yang said the mainland would spare no effort in realizing direct regular flights across the Strait "as soon as possible".

He said many Taiwan businessmen on the mainland had expressed the hope that airline companies could make it convenient for them to return to Taiwan to cast their ballots, and various Taiwanese associations across the mainland had made requests with airlines.

Meanwhile, Yang said the mainland government did not wish to be "involved in the election of Taiwan leaders" scheduled in March.

Chinese mainland hopes to send panda pair to Taiwan soon

The Chinese mainland has made adequate preparations for sending a pair of giant pandas to Taiwan, and it hoped that these animals could leave soon, a mainland official has said.

"Taiwan authorities headed by Chen Shuibian refuse the shipment of the pandas for political reasons, but people in the mainland want to send them to Taiwan compatriots with a firm and sincere wish," Yang Yi, spokesman with the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on Wednesday.

In May 2005, the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council announced a campaign to send giant pandas to Taiwan to display cross-strait peace and comity.

After discussions among experts, standards for choosing the pandas were released and the organizing agency for the campaign was chosen.

After careful experiments, two pandas were chosen from the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Wolong, in southwest Sichuan Province.

The two pandas were considered as the best choice by the center.

At the lunar new year festival eve of 2006, the pandas were named "Tuantuan" and "Yuanyuan", both meaning union, as a result of votes by cross-straits compatriots and netizens.

Since then, the pandas had been cared for by the center and both were in good condition, Yang said.

Some Taiwan compatriots showed their affection for pandas as well, and they traveled a long distance from Taiwan to Sichuan to see the pair, Yang added.

Chinese mainland resumes sand exports to Taiwan

The Chinese mainland has given licenses to seven companies to resume sand exports to Taiwan, said a spokesman with the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council on Wednesday.

"For a long time, China's mainland has made efforts to resume natural sand exports to Taiwan," said Yang Yi, a spokesman for the office.

On Dec. 11 last year, the Ministry of Commerce issued a regulation for mainland companies on the standard of license application for natural sand exports to Taiwan and initiated application procedure at the same day."

The list of the seven approved companies has been published on the website of the Ministry of Commerce. Six companies are in the southeastern Fujian Province, and one in the southern province of Guangdong.

In March last year the mainland banned the export of sand because of environmental concerns.

Given that 90 percent of sand in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao comes from the mainland, the three regions were exempt from the ban but trade remained suspended for a time.

The mainland signed an agreement on natural sand trade with Hong Kong and Macao, two special administrative regions of China, under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) in February last year and the sand trade resumed on March 25 the same year.
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