The Taiwanese-controlled island of Kinmen located just off the Chinese coast has begun importing water from its neighbor via a pipeline despite heightened tensions between the two sides.

Water from Jinjiang in China’s Fujian province began flowing through the 16-kilometer (10-mile) -long pipeline Sunday under a 30-year contract.

 

The island about three-times the size of Manhattan has long been short of water and hordes of tourists have put an extra strain on supplies.

 

The move shows how trade and other non-political ties have been relatively unaffected by the diplomatic freeze instituted two years ago by China, which claims Taiwan as a part of its territory to be annexed by force if necessary.

 

Kinmen was retained by Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists as they fled the Communist takeover of the mainland in 1949.

 

 
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