China, to help Taiwan cope with the glut in banana production and to ease hostility across the Taiwan Strait, has agreed to buy 2,000 tons of bananas from Taiwan, DPA quoted the sources of the island's opposition party as saying Sunday. "After an overnight emergency meeting with Chinese Communist Party representatives in Xiamen, China agreed at 2 a.m. today to buy 2,000 tons of Taiwan bananas," Tseng Yung-chuan, an official from Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), told a news conference in Taipei. "China would pay 10 Taiwan dollars (33 US cents) for each kilogram of Taiwan bananas, much higher than the Taiwan government's purchase price of three Taiwan dollars (10 US cents) per kilo," he said. Tseng said China would receive the shipments over 14 days, with the first 300 tons being transported by ship to Shanghai and Tianjin on Tuesday. Tseng also urged Taiwan to remove all bans on trade links with China and allow direct air links with China as soon as possible. Taiwan and China split since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Since then, Taiwan has banned air, sea and trade links with China for national security reasons. But last year, KMT leaders visited Beijing to promote cross-Strait exchanges and economic integration. As a result of the visits, China offered a pair of giant pandas to Taiwan and agreed to buy Taiwanese fruits and vegetables. President Chen Shui-bian's pro-independence government snubbed those offers as sugar-coated bullets and warned Taiwanese to stand on guard against China because Beijing's ultimate goal is to recover Taiwan, by force if necessary.
