First Taiwanese Flight to China

A Taiwanese airliner yesterday landed on mainland Chinese soil for the first time since China was split into two unequal parts by civil war more than 50 years ago.

The Boeing 747-400 of Taiwan's China Airlines flew to Shanghai via Hong Kong and returned to Taipei the same way after picking up 243 Taiwanese returning home for the Chinese New Year. It was the first of 16 charter flights to help Taiwanese working on the mainland to get home for the new year, which begins on February 1.

In Shanghai, Taiwan airline executives, Chinese government officials and other dignitaries popped champagne corks and exchanged toasts before the passengers boarded the plane.

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

John Chang, a grandson of the late Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek who fled to Taiwan from the mainland with his troops in 1949, was on the plane when it landed in Shanghai. A member of Taiwan's parliament, he called for a repetition next year.

Though called a "direct flight", restrictions imposed by Taiwan required the airliner to fly via Hong Kong.

Before the historic flight, a senior Chinese minister restated Beijing's policy on re-unification in a noticeably emollient way.

The vice premier, Qian Qichen, repeated pledges that "everything is negotiable" between Beijing and Taipei, provided that the island's government accepted the principle of "one China".

Mr Qian did not mention China's continuing assertion that it reserves the right to use force if necessary to resolve the Taiwan situation.

In Taipei a government spokesman, Li Weiyi, said that the two sides should now start talks, but he played down the significance of what he called an "indirect link by air" to the mainland.

Among the passengers, an electronics salesman, Gary Kao, hugged his wife and said that the flight had shaved a couple hours off his trip - which normally involves changing planes in Hong Kong or Macao with frequent delays.

Air travel is the third of the "three direct links" which Taiwan has been more reluctant than Beijing to establish. The other two are direct communications for postal services and sea travel. The Taipei government fears that a rapid expansion of direct links would amount to creeping integration. It claims they could also threaten security.

Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, with his sights set on winning the next presidential election in 2004, is unlikely to move too fast for fear of alienating his large pro-independence constituency.