Mainland concerned about missing Taiwan ship: spokesperson

The Chinese mainland has called for all-out efforts to search for a Taiwan fishing ship missing in the South Atlantic, with 49 people aboard.[Special coverage]

"We hope the Taiwan side can spare no effort to search for and find the ship and its crew as soon as possible," Fan Liqing, spokeswoman with the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The "Hsiang Fu Chun," a 700-tonne squid fishing vessel, has been unaccounted for since the loss of contact on Feb. 26 in the remote South Atlantic Ocean carrying 49 crew, including 11 people from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan media reported on Saturday.

The Chinese Marine Search and Rescue Center has made coordination efforts to urge concerned parties to carry out search and rescue missions, Fan said.

Upon hearing of the missing ship, the mainland's Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits contacted the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation to express concern about the accident, she added.