Taiwan and China yesterday hammered out a landmark agreement on non-stop charter flights for the Lunar New Year holiday, a move hailed by some as the biggest breakthrough in cross-strait relations in years.
"The agreement will have a significant, positive impact upon cross-strait relations," Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said yesterday.
PHOTO:CNA
The agreement ushers in the first "direct" cross-strait flights since air links were terminated after the Civil War ended in 1949. The successful talks may serve as a departure point toward thawed relations between Taiwan and China, the council said.
"This round of talks sets a good example for cross-strait negotiations. Now both Taiwan and China are weighing the possibility of a `Macau model' for further delegates to follow," Chiu said.
During the meeting in Macau, the negotiators decided that a total of 48 flights will take off from Jan. 29 to Feb. 20.
The flights will travel to and from Taipei and Kaohsiung and the Chinese cities of Bejing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Six Taiwanese airlines and six Chinese carriers will be authorized to take Taiwanese businesspeople home.
Both sides expressed satisfaction with the progress, and said they were confident they could settle remaining undecided technical affairs soon.
"There is no difficulty. We solved everything very quickly," Billy Chang (
"In a very short time, in a cordial atmosphere, we have come to an agreement," Pu Zhaozhou (
As the final agreement mapped out the available routes, domestic air carriers are now vying to get their share of the flights.
China Airlines Corp (
Meanwhile, all six carriers also expressed their interest in flights to and from Shanghai, which has a large population of Taiwanese businesspeople. EVA Airways Corp (
Smaller carriers also declared their preferences. Mandarin Airlines Corp (
In 2003, Taiwan and China instituted Lunar New Year flights from Shanghai to Taipei to take Taiwanese working in China home, with stops in Hong Kong or Macau.
There were no such flights last year.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
RSS