Symposium
held by MPT oncommemorating the anniversary
of the important speech by President
Jiang Zemin on promotion of national
unification
Section 7 New Progress of the Communication between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits
A. Developing from unidirectional communication to bidirectional communication
Since the issue of "To Taiwan Compatriot" by NPC, under the active promotion of the mainland, the requirements and pressure from Taiwanese and the public, Taiwan authorities had to loose the relations between the two sides. The communication between the two sides changed from "unidirection" to "bidirection", from private to public. On Oct.14, 1987, according to the message on "Central Agency" of Taiwan, Xinhua News Agency reported that the Central Standing Committee of Kuomintang "principally agreed that except personnel on active service and national workers, whoever has kinsfolk in the mainland could go to mainland to visit his family after register". By then, after nearly 40 years of isolation from mainland, Taiwan Authorities finally open an outlet. On Oct.16, 1987, the office of the State Council issued the "Announcement about the reception of Taiwan compatriots returning to mainland to visit and travel". '
Post department in the mainland took the opportunity that Taiwan Authorities announced to allow Taiwanese to come to the mainland for visiting as the good chance to open up the of communication with Taiwan. On Dec.2, MPT issued the announcement through Xinhua News Agency, declaring that: post departments warmly welcome Taiwanese come to the mainland to visit and travel. Post departments are willing to provide convenience for Taiwanese to use post communication services on the mainland. It regulated that Taiwanese share the same treatment as the customers of mainland when they use post and telecommunication services.
Since Taiwan authorities allowed the public to come to the mainland, the request for communication of the public became very high. Under the pressure of public opinion inside and outside, on March 12,1988, Taiwan authorities put forward the policy of "mail communication with no stamp communication", i.e. they would deliver the mails from the mainland but they would blot out the stamps. For mails sent to the mainland, they set up special post box in Taibei, and entrusted Red Cross to send to the mainland via Hong Kong. According to the statistics by the end of 1988, there were l.40 million mails sent from Taiwan and 2 million mails sent from the mainland to Taiwan. On June 1989, Taiwan authorities drew up the Plan that allowed Taiwanese to send mails directly with Taiwan stamps, which would be sent from Taibei post center and transferred via Hong Kong to the mainland, no longer be sent by Hong Kong post office. Air mails could be sent from Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou to Taibei, from Taibei to Shanghai and Beijing. but only for the ordinary mails, postcard and printings. By the end of the year, the quantity of sent and received mails reached over 15 million, increasing by 5 times comparing to that in 1988. In 1990 mails between the two sides reached 21 million, increasing 41% comparing to that of the last year. Posts of the two sides started to contacted with each other. When post offices of the mainland inquired Taibei Post Center about the situation of registered mails and the receival and delivery of telegraphs, they could get the reply. In Feb. 1991, the mainland opened the post business of waterway and land to Taiwan. Mails were collected in the 3 processing offices in Be1Jing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and transferred to Taiwan via Hong Kong. In Feb. 1993, post department of Taiwan also opened up the mail business to the mainland through waterway and land. Mails were sent by Jilong Post Center to the ship company and transported to Hong Kong then transferred to the mainland. In 1994, to accelerate mail delivery speed, post of the mainland determined that Fuzhou Post Office delivered mail packages directly with Taibei Post Center. Thus, 5 transfer offices of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Fuzhou set up air mail communication relations with Taibei Post Center. Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou set up waterway and land mail communication relations with Jilong Post Center.
The major progress of public bidirectional communication between the two sides was the sending and receiving of registered mails. On April 29, 1993, the non-governmental organizations--the Relation Society of the Two Sides of the Straits and the Exchange Foundation of the Straits signed "the Agreement of the inquiry and compensation of registered mails between the two sides" in Singapore. It regulated that the scope of registered mails between the two sides was' mails, postcards, stamped envelopes, printings, newspapers, periodicals and documents for blinds. If they were lost or damaged, the two sides would compensated separately, there was no accounting between the two sides.
Symposium
held by MPT on
commemorating the anniversary
of the important speech by President
Jiang Zemin on promotion of national
unification
On Jan.30, 1995, President Jiang Zemin made a speech about developing relations between the two sides and the procedures of the peaceful unification of our motherland. He declared that "procedures should be adopted to accelerate the realization of direct communication of navigation, post and telecommunications". In 1996, the minister of MPT Wu Jichuan made a speech "To realize direct communication of post and telecommunications between the two sides and promote the unification of our motherland", and put forward 5 proposals of direct communication of post and telecommunications. Later, communication relations between the two sides made new progress. Especially, the realization of direct transportation between the mainland and Taiwan by use of Macao Post Airlines not only improved mail delivery speed, but also promoted the development of post business. In 1995, mails between the two sides were 30. 40 million, increasing 5.24% comparing to that of the last year, ranking the second of the export business of China Post, only interior to that of Hong Kong. In 1996, it reached 37.78 million, increasing 3.8%. After 1997, it continued to increase ranking the first of the export post business, surpassing that of Hong Kong.
B. Exchanging and inter-visit of post staff of the two sides
With the increasing of Taiwan compatriots coming to the mainland to visit, exchange and invest, and the development of communications of post and telecommunications, the contact of the post staff of the two sides increased. Especially, the person structure change a lot, from retired persons to persons in services, from ordinary staff to administrators. In 1994, through the endeavor of the post staff of the two sides, from Nov.2 to Nov.4, "Symposium on Post Business Development of The Two Sides" was held in Shanghai. From 1996, the number of the groups of post staff of the two sides for exchange and study on business, technology, and science have reached over 30, the total number of persons reached over 300. Through the exchange, they gained understanding and friendship. A Taiwan compatriot wrote a lyric which was the mutual voice of post staffs of the two sides. It was also the mutual wish of Chinese of the two sides.
Under the instruction of CCCPC's policy of Taiwan and the endeavor of the compatriots of the two sides, the communication of post is getting accumulated and enlarged, and have gained great achievements. But this public bidirectional communication was realized in the situation that political problems had not been solved. So it belongs to indirect communication and not direct communication.
There are still many difficult problems to solve and much adverse effect. It is still an important task for the future to realize direct post communication between the two sides and still needs the mutual endeavor of the two sides of the Straits.