Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/12/28
By: Amy Huang and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Dec. 28 (CNA) Taiwan will develop Kinmen, an island group it controls off southern China, into a “model spot” for peaceful exchanges between the two sides of Taiwan Strait, the head of the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said Wednesday.

Although cross-strait dialogue has been suspended by China, foundation Chairman Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂) said during a visit to Kinmen that he found cross-strait exchanges and interactions through the “three mini-links” between Kinmen and China’s Fujian Province are operating normally.

He told local officials that the government will make efforts to develop the outlying island county into a “middle point” and “window” for cross-strait contacts.

The Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council and the SEF, the Taipei-based intermediary institution that handles cross-strait affairs in the absence of formal ties with China, will both try to make Kinmen into “a model spot for peaceful cross-strait exchanges,” Tien said.    [FULL  STORY]