China plans a major new port project on its southeastern coast near Taiwan, a step toward what it hopes will be "free trade" with the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own, state media reported Monday.
The port complex near the city of Xiamen will be one of two new ocean shipping centers, with another planned for the southern coast of Guangdong province, west of Hong Kong, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported, citing the Ministry of Communications.
The plan to build up ports in and near Xiamen is part of a "Western Shore Economic Zone" planned for the Taiwan Strait, the report said.
China needs to upgrade its transport networks to match its economic growth, it cited Communications Minister Li Shenglin as saying.
Li said the Xiamen port was in preparation for "mainland-Taiwan free trade relations," the newspaper reported.
Mainland China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the two sides split amid civil war in 1949, but China still claims the democratic island as part of its territory, and has threatened to invade if Taiwan makes its de facto independence permanent.
Beijing has offered new trade concessions, hoping to shift Taiwan sentiment in favor of uniting with the communist mainland. But Taiwan's leaders have balked at such overtures and continue to enforce restrictions on direct shipping and travel between the island and the Chinese mainland.
Zhangzhou, a city near Xiamen, will be a major center for imports of crude oil and natural gas, the report said. The nearby cities of Fuzhou, Quanzhou and Putian would also be included, it said.
China's three biggest ports, near Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen, have become among the world's largest as trade has soared while the economy expands at an annual rate of about 10 percent.
The other new port project would link the cities of Zhanjiang and Fangcheng in Guangdong with Haikou, on Hainan island.
