Taiwan, China urged to launch direct mail

Taiwanese and Chinese mail operators on Wednesday called on their governments to allow direct mail delivery across the Taiwan Strait soon.
“It takes five days to send an ordinary piece of mail from Taipei to Beijing because the mail has to go through Japan or Kong Kong,” said Huang Shu-chien, chairman of the Taiwan Postal Association and vice president of Taiwan’s state-run Chunghwa Post Co.

Huang, along with other senior postal officials and company executives from the two sides, made the appeal at a seminar during his visit to Beijing.

Taiwan and China, which split during a Chinese civil war in 1949, began allowing mail to be delivered between the two sides through a third place in 1979.

Huang noted that there are no technical problems with bypassing a third location to directly deliver mail between Taiwan and China, but he said it requires negotiations to solve the issue of direct transportation.

“The opening of direct mail delivery would halve the time and money,” Huang said.

Wang Yuci, deputy head of the State Postal Bureau of the People’s Republic of China, also urged both sides to grasp the historic opportunity to enhance and expand cooperation in the area of postal services and to soon make possible direct cross-strait mail delivery.

Taiwan-China relations have been improving since Taiwan’s new President Ma Ying-jeou, who favors closer ties with China, took office in May.

Taiwan opened itself to more Chinese tourists and the two sides launched direct weekend cross-strait charter flights in July.