Kinmen, a fine example of cross-Strait integration

FUZHOU/TAIPEI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- At Lyu Chen-yi's noodle restaurant in Kinmen, a group of islets in the Taiwan Strait, the tap water comes from Fujian Province on the mainland.

The TV box Lyu recently bought from Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian, allows him to watch mainland TV programs. Lyu is eagerly looking forward to another round of shopping on the mainland in the coming days.

If there were a bridge between Kinmen and Xiamen, that would be perfect, Lyu said.

For Lyu and many other residents of Kinmen, Xiamen feels as familiar as their hometown.

"Before the outbreak of COVID-19, I paid more than 10 visits to Xiamen and Quanzhou every year, sometimes just for a dinner with friends," said a taxi driver surnamed Chi in Kinmen.

On a local beach, he easily pointed out the landmark buildings along the coastline of Xiamen, situated just across a narrow channel.

Tap water is another fine example of how Kinmen is closely connected to the mainland.

The water supply project from Fujian to Kinmen was initiated in 1995. After years of efforts, the construction of the infrastructure began in 2015, and the water supply finally came through in 2018.

Without water from the mainland, Kinmen would not have been able to survive the droughts so easily in the past few years, said Weng Tze-pao, who used to head the water works of Kinmen.

In 2019, it did not rain for 100 consecutive days in Kinmen, and in the following two years the local rainfall dropped to the lowest levels since records began. Even the plant of Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor, a popular local drink, would run short of water if not for the mainland supply, according to Weng.

"Blood is thicker than water," said Su Linan, deputy secretary of the Quanzhou municipal committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). For hundreds of years, the people of Quanzhou had migrated across the Strait. Today, more than 9 million residents of Taiwan can trace their ancestors to Quanzhou.

Water supply between the mainland and Kinmen opened a door for cross-Strait integration, said Chen Guoliang, former chief of the water resources department of Fujian.

The assessment of a project to connect the electricity supply network of Kinmen with the coastal region of Fujian was completed, and the survey for a bridge between Xiamen and Kinmen has started.

A guideline on supporting Fujian Province in building a demonstration area of cross-Strait integrated development will be released soon by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said in June.

It aims to make personnel exchanges between Fujian and Taiwan more convenient, make trade and investment more smooth, and expand exchanges and cooperation, she said.

Fujian used to be on the front lines of cross-Strait military confrontation and is now growing to be an exemplary zone for cross-Strait integration. Such a change is meaningful, said Lei Chien, chief of a Taipei-based women's organization.

"I believe the integration will have a more comprehensive plan in the future," Lei said.