Mainland authorities will start talks with a Taiwanese
opposition delegation on Monday about allowing direct cross-Straits
charter flights during the upcoming
Spring Festival holiday.
The negotiations are held in hopes of launching non-stop,
two-way charter flights between the mainland and Taiwan during the
2005 Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival holiday, which begins on
February 9.
The island has banned direct air links with the Chinese mainland
since 1949.
A six-member Kuomintang (KMT) delegation led by Tseng
Yung-chuan, director of the KMT's central policy committee, arrived
in Beijing Sunday afternoon for the talks. Delegation members also
include spokesman Chang Jung-kung and John Chang, who initiated the
direct cross-Straits charter flights in 2002.
Sources with the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said
on Sunday that the group was scheduled to meet with Chen Yunlin,
director of the Taiwan Affairs Office, on Monday morning and will
hold talks with officials of the Civil Aviation Administration
of?China?in the afternoon.
Beijing has proposed non-governmental talks to work out
technical and business issues concerning cross-Straits charter
flights.
Cross-straits charter flights were first run between Taipei,
Kaohsiung and Shanghai during the 2003 Spring Festival, but
involved only six Taiwanese airlines. All charter planes were
required to transit through a third place.
(China Daily January 10, 2005)