Landmark China-Taiwan Flight Thaws Ties, for Now

TAIWAN'S first commercial airline to fly to China in more than half a century landed in Shanghai yesterday morning in a small but historic breakthrough for relations between the political rivals.

A China Airlines (CAL) Boeing 747-400 carrying 19 crew and two Taiwanese government officials left Taiwan before dawn, made a 50 minute stopover in Hongkong and arrived in Shanghai's Pudong airport at 8.52 am.

'This is a breakthrough in cross-strait ties,' said Shanghai vice-mayor Han Zheng. 'Like most Taiwan investors in Shanghai, we hope that the day of direct flights will come soon.'

China Airlines is the first of six Taiwanese airlines to provide charter flights between yesterday and Feb 9 for Shanghai-based Taiwanese to return home for the Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb 1.

However, the flights must transit in Hongkong or Macau.

Before the charter flights were approved, Taiwanese making trips to and from China had to transit in third cities, mainly Hongkong, and travel on foreign airliners.

The completion of the first Taiwanese commercial flight across the Taiwan Strait is seen by many as a first step towards ending a ban on direct travel between the two sides since their 1949 split.

Yesterday, Mr Han hosted a grand reception, complete with Chinese drummers and traditional lion dancers, for the Taiwanese.

Together with Taiwan airline executives, he and other Chinese government officials popped the champagne and exchanged toasts before 243 passengers - Shanghai-based Taiwanese and their families - boarded the plane.

Mr Yeh Hui-teh, chairman of Shanghai's Taiwanese Businessmen Association, welcomed the maiden flight as a 'beautiful dream come true'.

The mood was cheery aboard the plane, with passengers taking photos of one another and scribbling autographs on boarding passes.

Despite the absence of direct links, about 800,000 Taiwanese work and study in China, with many of them living in Shanghai. Taiwanese investors have also poured about US$100 billion (S$181 billion) into the Chinese economy.

Many Taiwanese have lobbied their government to lift the ban on direct travel. Notable among them was Mr John Chang, a Taiwanese lawmaker and grandson of late Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek.

Yesterday, Mr Chang, who was in Shanghai to take part in the celebrations, said he hoped for a repeat of the charter flights next year. 'It needs a lot of preparation and discussion, but I don't think it's impossible,' he said.

Despite the inaugural fanfare, the Chinese side made clear they wanted the Taiwanese authorities to do more to ease travel - such as dropping its condition that such flights must stop over in Hongkong or Macau before heading for Shanghai.

But Taiwan analysts said that given their government's reservations about Beijing, full direct transport links would remain an ideal for some time to come.

'The government fears that direct transport links would encourage more businessmen to go to China, thereby speeding capital flow to the mainland,' said political analyst Emile Sheng.

Professor Xu Bodong, director of the Taiwan Studies Institute at the Beijing Union University, agreed.

However, he is optimistic about the future. 'Once the floodgates have opened, it will be very difficult to shut them again,' he noted.