Taiwan to withdraw troops from Kinmen islets near Xiamen

Taiwan is set to withdraw troops from two islets near the Chinese mainland next year and turn the former battleground into a tourist attraction amid warming ties, reports said on Friday.

Nearly 200 soldiers currently stationed in the Tatan and Ertan islets, which form part of the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen island group off southeast China’s Xiamen city, will be withdrawn from May next year, said United Evening News, citing defence authorities.

The defence ministry will relinquish control of the islets to the Kinmen county government, while the police and the coastguard are expected to each send 20 officers to the islets from June, the report said.

The two islets, which together have an area of little more than one square kilometre, are about four kilometres from Xiamen at the nearest point.

Kinmen county chief Lee Wuo-shih has said he is confident that reminders of a fierce 1950 battle on the two fortified islets would lure visitors from both Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.

According to Taiwan’s military authorities, a 300-strong Taiwanese garrison wiped out more than 700 Chinese troops trying to land on the fortified frontline islets following an intensive artillery bombardment in July of that year.