Editor's Note

When you turn on the TV at 8:00 PM, you find "The Mainland in Pictures" on the three stations; flip through the newspaper, and there's a story about a professors' group holding a "Conference on Development on the Two Sides of the Taiwan Straits" in Peking; during the Spring vacation rush, there was a new record for citizens traveling abroad on a single day, with the mainland the most popular destination; last year there were 870,000 visits to the mainland, and the figure could surpass one million this year.

Since the government began permitting travel to the mainland in November, 1987, "mainland fever" has yet to break. Even though after the June 4 Incident in the year before last, there was a sharp drop in travelers from Europe and the US, Taiwan businessmen and travelers continued to go in droves. Yet with all this mainland fever, a group which has also arisen out of the policy of permitting family visits is out in the cold: they are the large number of mainland children who have legally settled in Taiwan in the past three years.

According to regulations, people over 75 or under 16 need not be bound by the rule that a person must live in a free area for five years before being allowed to come to Taiwan. Thus, after liberalization of family visits, many people who returned to the mainland to visit could not stand to see their children and grandchildren growing up in an environment of poverty and back-ward education, so they brought them back. There are currently more than 1,000 mainland children living with relatives or studying in Taiwan.

Though the 1,000-plus mainland children have not had a great impact thrown in amongst 20 million people sharing the same language and culture, there are still traces to be followed.

Most of them are between the ages of 12 and 16. Because most of their local relatives are old veterans, it is easy to find them in primary and middle schools near military dependents' villages.

Most of them are mature for their age, sensitive, and advanced. Their faces reveal sadness at having parted from their immediate family, or uncertainty in a strange environment, but after a short adjustment period, most have performed exceptionally well in school. Of the four mainland children studying in the third year class at the Shih-hsien Middle School in Taipei, three have been placed in the advanced classes based on ability. Sun Han, a young lady from Hangchow studying at the Cheng-pin Middle School in Keelung, who has been in Taiwan for only three months, is already one of the top ten students in the whole school based on grades. Li Yi, studying at Ilan High School, passed the highly competitive exam to enter the department of Electronics at National Taiwan University--and these are by no means exceptional.

Yet the future they face is an uncertain one to some extent. For most granddad is a retired veteran, so their economic situation is not the best. And if he should pass away, what would become of the mainland child? Sung Wen-hsiang, who had lived alone but last year took in two grandchildren from the mainland, plans to put the children in a military academy. Last year the Taipei City Department of Social Affairs had to arrange for two mainland children whose grandfathers had died and who had no other local relatives willing to take them in.

If we have a longing for the mainland which extends beyond scenery and economic interest to a "blood is thicker than water" love for our compatriots, then there's no harm in getting up from the sidelines to extend some concern and warmth to mainland children in Taiwan. This is the objective which has prompted Sinorama to make this issue's special feature "Children from Mainland in Taiwan."

The difficulties of life on the mainland are evident not only to the grandfathers who have taken in grandchildren, but to all of the people who have taken part in the millions of visits to the mainland since the liberalization of family visits. This has led to yet another kind of reaction.

In a survey on "The Influence of Family Visits and Travel in the Mainland" conducted by several scholars including Ting Tin-yu, Ch'u Hai-yuan, Lin Cheng-yi, and Tsai Ming-chang, because people get a chance to see life in the mainland up close, not only will the policy of visits to the mainland not spur reunification, it may even make reunification all the more difficult. In the survey questionnaire, the percentage who responded that the mainland would likely invade Taiwan or blockade Taiwan if there was a declaration of Taiwan independence was far higher among those who had visited the mainland (51%) than among those who had not (24%).

Those who have been to the mainland and seen the difference in the standard of living between the two sides of the Straits cherish the current accomplishments in Taiwan even more. And from what they have seen and heard, or what their relatives have suffered, they have an increased fear of the possibility that the Chinese Communists will use force against Taiwan.

If the enemy comes, since Taiwan is an island, naturally the air force will be the first line of defense. And the recent "Operation Desert Storm" in the Persian Gulf shows even more clearly that the role of air power, which made its appearance only in WWII, will become more and more important as a weapon to destroy the enemy's military potential and morale and to protect one's own.

What after all is the military capability of the ROC air force? If anything happens in the air over the Taiwan Straits, can the current four layer air defense network effectively negate the enemy? What is the current status of the Ching-kuo IDF (Indigenous Defense Fighter), which will be the bulwark of ROC combat aircraft in the 1990's? Can it spell the Chinese Communist Jian-8? For this month's cover story "Who Rules the Skies Over Taiwan?" Sinorama editors visited various air force installations, the Aeronautical Industry Development Center, and military analysts to sketch out t he current air power situation over the Taiwan Straits.

With "mainland fever" still running high, this month's cover story and special feature deserve a close look.

[Picture Caption]

Sung Hung-kang and Hung-sheng, who came to Taiwan at the end of last year, show some old pictures to Sinorama reporter Jackie Chen and talk about their life on the mainland.