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| Chen Yunlin (right), director of Taiwan Affairs
Office of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee, meets
with Tseng Yung-chuan, director of the Kuomintang's central policy committee January
10, 2005 in Beijing. (newsphoto) |
A breakthrough may be expected in launching
two-way, round-trip and non-stop charter
flights
across the Taiwan Straits next month after
Beijing officially agreed to such an arrangement yesterday.
Chen Yunlin, minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State
Council, expressed a welcome to the proposal raised by Taiwan's "mainland
affairs council" while urging the Taiwan authorities to honour its pledge.
"If Taiwan can keep its words and is willing to take flexible measures,
mainland-Taiwan air links can be totally achieved this year," he told a
delegation of Taiwanese opposition politicians.
Once the two-way, direct cross-Straits charter flight plan is put into
place during the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, it would be the first
such air links in more than five decades because Taipei has banned
mainland airplanes since 1949.
Chen demanded non-government talks be held between industrial
associations and airlines across the Straits to work out technical and
business details for the charter flights.
Any move by Taipei to complicate non-government
negotiations under the excuse of "public right" and "security" goes
against the interests of the broad mass of Taiwan compatriots
, he said.
The island has held out for governmental talks to pave the way for the
participation of mainland airlines in the charter flights.
Chen met with the six-member Kuomintang (KMT) delegation, which arrived
in Beijing on Sunday to push for direct cross-Straits charter flights
during the 2005 Spring Festival, which falls on February 9.
Scores of representatives from mainland-based Taiwanese-funded
enterprises and Taiwanese airlines also attended the meeting.
"Lawmaker" Tseng Yung-chuan, head of the KMT group, quoted Chen as
saying the mainland agrees to the model for "non-stop, round-trip,
multi-destination flights by carriers on both sides."
"Minister Chen told us the direct charter flight programme for the 2005
Spring Festival will be officially started from today and preparations
will come in coming days," Tseng said after the meeting.
(China Daily) | 
Updated: 2005-01-11 10:10