TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said Wednesday (Nov. 16) Taiwan’s “Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities” were to blame for delays in restoring direct ferry links between the two sides.

Taiwan and China have been arguing about whether the services between China and Taiwan’s outlying islands, which were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, could be resumed without further ado or needed talks between the two sides first.

At his weekly news conference, TAO Spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said only private companies should discuss the ferry links, accusing Taiwan of politicizing the issue by demanding talks at a government-to-government level.

In Taipei, DPP lawmakers said that the original plans to open direct ferry links between the Chinese province of Fujian and the Taiwan islands of Kinmen and Matsu had been the result of talks between the two governments. Once the government reaches a mutually acceptable formula, the private operators will put the plans into practice, per the Liberty Times.

At the same TAO news conference, Ma announced that from Friday (Nov. 18), passengers boarding flights between China and Taiwan only need to present the negative test results of one nucleic acid amplification test conducted within 48 hours before boarding, with a Ct value of 35 or more, instead of two such tests previously, the China Times reported.