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Cross-strait maritime exercise held
TROUBLED WATERS: The search-and-rescue drill took place between Kinmen and
Xiamen, the scene of fierce battles between the KMT and CCP in the '40s and '50s
AFP , TAIPEI
Friday, Sep 17, 2010, Page 1
Rescue boats from Taiwan (front and middle)
and China (rear) take part in a joint rescue drill yesterday.
PHOTO; AFP
Taiwan and China yesterday staged their biggest-ever joint maritime
search-and-rescue drill, near waters where the two sides fought fierce battles
half a century ago, officials said.
More than 30 vessels and three helicopters took part in the exercise off Kinmen,
the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement.
About 400 people from coast guard, rescue and maritime support units from the
two sides took part in the drill, according to the statement.
¡§The purpose of the drill was to check how responsible units from Taiwan and the
mainland [China] will react to maritime accidents,¡¨ the Coast Guard
Administration said.
The drill, which covered an area of about 6.2km2, played out a scenario where a
passenger ship shuttling between Kinmen and Xiamen hits a cargo vessel, causing
fires and leaving some passengers in the sea, it said.
Exercises of this type were agreed in earlier talks between Taiwan¡¦s Straits
Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (¦¿¤þ©[) and China¡¦s Association for
Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (³¯¶³ªL).
Kinmen was the scene of fierce battles in the 1940s and 1950s when the Chinese
Communist Party¡¦s military repeatedly tried to conquer the island group held by
the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Now peaceful exchanges have taken over and so far people from Taiwan and China
have made more than 1.28 million visits using a ferry that links Kinmen and
Xiamen.
Taiwan and China held the first-ever such drill in 2008, but on the Taiwan side
only the Kinmen County Government joined the drill, mobilizing one ship.
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