MACAU: Taiwan and China Saturday agreed to landmark direct
flights for next month's Lunar New Year holidays, a mainland
official said.
The flights would run from January 29 until February 20, head of
the Chinese delegation and executive director of the China Civil
Aviation Association, Pu Zhaozhou, told reporters.
The 24 round-trip flights would stop briefly in Hong Kong and
connect the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou with
Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan, Pu said, reading from a
statement.
Taipei has banned direct transport exchanges across the Taiwan
Strait since it split from China in 1949 after a civil war.
China still considers the island part of its territory awaiting
reunification, by force if necessary.
During the Chinese New Year holidays in 2003, six Taiwanese
airliners were allowed to fly to Shanghai to pick up Taiwanese
businesspeople and take them home via Hong Kong or Macau. There was
no similar service in 2004.
Despite the longstanding ban on direct links, limited direct
exchanges - known as "mini-links" - were opened in 2002 between
Taiwan's frontline islands of Matsu and Kinmen and selected ports
in China's southeastern Fujian province.
Taiwan and China ties have been increasingly strained since the
re-election of Taiwan's pro-independence President Chen Shui-bian
in March last year. - AFP