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In an effort to weaken the island's links with the mainland, Taiwan said yesterday that Taiwanese bloodlines had nothing to do with those of China and were closer to the Maori of New Zealand.

Lin Ma-li,  a blood researcher at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei, announced at a seminar organised by the diplomatic affairs council of the Foreign Ministry that the ancestors of Taiwan's aborigines were possibly the forefathers of the Maori.

She said Taiwanese aborigines came to Taiwan more than 10,000 years ago at the end of the glacial period, before the ice melted and separated the island from the mainland. This meant the bloodlines of the Taiwanese were not the same as those of the mainland.

She based her theory on  years of research showing that Taiwanese aborigines had common DNA features with Polynesians.

She said the ancestors of Taiwanese aborigines later moved to Southeast Asia and Oceania. 'So, it is reasonable to say that the blood ties of Taiwanese aborigines are closer to Polynesians.'

She said Taiwanese aborigines' Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA), considered the strongest index of race genetics, bore types such as B, E, R9 and M7, which were rare on the mainland.

Ms Lin was invited by the council to speak on her findings at the seminar, attended by foreign and local journalists. Foreign Minister Mark Chen Tan-sun  addressed the opening of the seminar.

Ms Lin's theory is popular among pro-independence activists in Taiwan, who argue that Taiwan is not a part of China.

Her theory was outlined as Vice-President Annette Lu Hsiu-lien said Taiwan and the mainland both acknowledged that the two were culturally and ethnically related, though she denounced Beijing for treating Taipei as an enemy.

'The best way to define the relationship is that culturally and ethnically, Taiwan and China are relatives, and geographically, we are neighbours,' Ms Lu told  the  Foreign Policy quarterly. 'As relatives, we could not fight each other. As neighbours, we should peacefully coexist and co-operate.

'The mainland says, 'yes, we are relatives, but we are one country, not neighbours'. They say we are one family. But they have to prove it, because they treat us more like enemies.'



Bloodlines show Taiwanese 'more Maori than Chinese'