In 1958, China pummeled the tiny outlying Taiwanese islands of Kinmen and Matsu with hundreds of thousands of shells, flattening homes and killing scores of civilians as the Communists tried to advance against the Chinese Nationalist Party who had fled to Taipei.

More than 50 years later, political tensions remain high between Taipei and Beijing but China now wants to build a bridge to the islands, claiming it will help boost their economic development.

Taiwan, however, fears the move is just another provocative strategy to divide and conquer its territory, which China claims as its own. Some have accused Beijing of floating the bridge project to try to meddle in its upcoming election this January.

The Chinese media reported last week on the launch of an ambitious blueprint to construct bridges between Xiamen, a 3.5-million-strong city in its southeastern Fujian province, to Taiwan’s Kinmen, Matsu and Fuzhou islands.

On October 13, 40 experts from both sides of the Taiwan Strait met in the provincial capital, Fuzhou, to discuss a project that would create a favourable environment for people from Taiwan to work and live in mainland China, said Ma Xioaguang, a spokesperson with the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office.