Politics aside, Taiwan gives generously in China quake aid

By Ralph Jennings

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan, normally hostile to China, has offered its earthquake-hit neighbor one of its biggest outpourings of aid to demonstrate gratitude for help it received when it suffered a similar disaster in 1999.

Taiwan's government is offering T$2 billion ($71 million), so much that one lawmaker is questioning the source of the funds, for relief in China's Sichuan province, where a magnitude 7.9 quake on Monday has killed at least 15,000.

The public has massed another T$2.2 billion, local media said. Taiwan companies and entrepreneurs are pledging nearly 300 million yuan ($42.9 million), while others, including president-elect Ma Ying-jeou, donated smaller sums of money or supplies such as tents, sleeping bags and medicine.

"It's hard to say for sure this is the world's highest amount (of aid for this disaster), but according to the news out there so far, it should be," said Tung Chen-yuan, vice director of the Taiwan government's Mainland Affairs Council.

China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, and the relationship between Beijing and Taipei has been stormy. Beijing has vowed to bring the island back under its rule, by force if necessary.

But China on Thursday accepted a Taiwan-based China Airlines offer to fly relief materials to Sichuan province, Xinhua news agency said. For security reasons and political concerns, Taiwan aircraft seldom land in China.

A Taiwan Red Cross search-and-rescue crew was cleared to head for China on Friday, the island's government said. The crew will share Taiwan's 1999 earthquake aftermath experience with beleaguered Chinese search-and-rescue personnel.

Officials and donation collection agencies said because Taiwan received aid after its own deadly quake in 1999, many on the island feel obligated to give back. The September 21, 1999 quake measured 7.1 and killed 2,416 people.

"Taiwan has gone through quakes before, so we have that unique experience," said Master Chueh-pei, spokeswoman for Taiwan's Fo Guang Shan Buddhist organization, which sent medicine to the frontlines. "And then China is right next to us, so there's a brother-like relationship and a sense of racial similarity."

(Editing by Jonathan Hopfner and Valerie Lee)