Mail with secessionist postmark returned

All letters and parcels stamped with a "UN for Taiwan" postmark have been returned to the island, a senior mainland official said yesterday.

"The island authorities preaching 'Taiwan independence' through the postal service is an infringement on compatriots' freedom," Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, told a regular press briefing yesterday.

"This has seriously hampered the exchange of letters between people on the two sides of the Taiwan Straits as well as Taiwan people's exchanges with other parts of the world," she said.