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Taiwan's leading shipping magnate, Evergreen Group chairman Chang Yung-fa, was reported yesterday to have harshly criticised the island's refusal to open direct cross-strait links.

 Mr Chang's remarks, carried in a China Times report from Beijing, where he was on a visit, sent shock waves through the ruling Kuomintang nearly a year after President Lee Teng-hui warned businessmen to 'exercise caution and avoid haste' in investing in China.

 Mr Chang, who was also reported to have met President Jiang Zemin, said the refusal to implement 'three links' with the mainland was pointlessly harming the island's economy.

 The mainland was economically too strong to continue avoiding direct transport, postal and commercial links.

 He also reportedly volunteered his services as a secret emissary to Beijing, a move that met with widespread criticism in Taiwan.

 Chang King-yuh, chairman of Taipei's Mainland Affairs Council, said it was far too early to consider opening the 'three links'.

 'Only when national security and dignity can be guaranteed, we shall implement the links in a stage-by-stage process.'  Transportation and Communications Minister Tsay Jaw-yang said his ministry had no opinion and it would 'handle only technical matters' related to cross-strait links.

 A flurry of differing opinions were expressed on the sensitive issue after the Kuomintang's weekly Central Standing Committee's meeting yesterday.

 A few committee members, including President Group chief executive Kao Ching-yuan, said Mr Chang Yung-fa was right.

 'It would be best if the 'three links' could be opened up as soon as possible.' Wang You-theng , chairman of the Republic of China General Chamber of Commerce, said links were desirable but added 'the Government still has to consider the overall security situation'.

 Tycoon Wang Yung-ching, head of the Formosa Plastics Group, said mainland links could not be halted by any policy.

 At the Kuomintang meeting, Koo Chen-fu, another business tycoon who also acts as Taipei's chief negotiator with Beijing in his capacity as Straits Exchange Foundation chairman, said he disapproved of Mr Chang Yung-fa's remarks.



Shipping tycoon attacks direct links ban