(Reuters) -Taiwan is closely monitoring whether China will include the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands in a new five-year economic plan under discussion this week in Beijing.
Here are some facts about Taiwan’s offshore islands:
– When the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists, it retained control of several islands and islets along China’s eastern and southern coasts. Most were later captured by Chinese forces or evacuated by Taiwan as they were too difficult to defend.
Today, Taiwan only holds the Kinmen and Matsu islands, which lie just off the coast of China’s Fujian province and are geographically part of them.
– During the Cold War, Chinese forces regularly bombarded Kinmen and Matsu, but Taiwan maintained control of the islands. The shelling did not cease until 1979, although martial law remained in place until 1992, five years after it was lifted in Taiwan proper.
– Kinmen and Matsu retain a large Taiwan military presence, but are also popular tourist destinations. Regular ferry services from the Kinmen and Matsu islands to China were introduced in 2001, as part of a normalisation plan to ease tensions.
– At its closest point, the Chinese coast is only a few kilometres (miles) away from Kinmen, and the cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou can be clearly seen from the shore.
– Taiwan has complained of a renewed military and quasi-military Chinese pressure campaign against Kinmen and Matsu. That includes regular Chinese coast guard patrols into Kinmen waters and occasional drone flights nearby.
– Civil aviation has been a particular bone of contention. Last year, China opened two new air routes near Kinmen and Matsu saying they were intended to help ease air traffic congestion. Taiwan, however, said it was not consulted and that the routes pose risks to civilian flights serving the airports on Kinmen and Matsu. Taiwan’s security officials also said the routes shorten their response time and threaten the island’s national security.
Xiamen’s new international airport, due to open next year, is only a few kilometres (miles) from Kinmen, and Taiwan worries it could pose an aviation and security risk.
– Kinmen and Matsu already have economies closely connected to the Chinese cities of Xiamen, Quanzhou and Fuzhou, with which its residents share deep linguistic, cultural, business and family connections.
– China is also constructing a bridge from Xiamen to Kinmen without consulting Taiwan, whose government has not approved the project. No construction work has begun on the Kinmen side.
(Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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