Taiwan to resume limited ferry services between islets and mainland China

Month-long plan will be limited to Quemoy and Matsu residents and mainland Chinese spouses, for Lunar New Year holiday

Transport links were suspended in February 2020 due to concerns over the Covid-19 outbreak in mainland China

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The Shuitou ferry terminal on Quemoy. Services to mainland China have been suspended for nearly three years because of the pandemic. Photo: CNA

Published: 9:00pm, 22 Dec 2022

Taiwan will take steps to restart its “mini” transport links to mainland China, with ferry services the first to be restored in stages from next month.

A full reopening will depend on how soon Beijing can contain the current surge in Covid-19 infections in mainland China, Taiwanese officials said on Thursday.

The connections were launched in 2001 and are part of the so-called three mini links – transport, trade and postal services between Taiwan’s offshore islets of Quemoy, also known as Kinmen, and Matsu, and Xiamen, Mawei and Quanzhou in the mainland Chinese province of Fujian.

Three “mini links” were launched in 2001 between the Taiwanese islets of Quemoy (pictured) and Matsu, and Xiamen, Mawei and Quanzhou in mainland China. Photo: AFP

Self-ruled Taiwan suspended the transport links in February 2020 due to concerns over the worsening Covid-19 outbreak in mainland China.

In a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Premier Su Tseng-chang approved a month-long plan to resume ferry services between the two islets and the mainland.

“The [ferry services] to operate between January 7 and February 6, 2023 will be limited to residents of Kinmen and Matsu as well as the [mainland] Chinese spouses of local residents,” cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng told reporters after the meeting.

Lo said the ferry services would be resumed so that residents of the two islets and their mainland Chinese spouses could visit friends and relatives, or return to Kinmen and Matsu, during the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins on January 21.