In show of political goodwill, Taiwan to allow more flights from mainland China
Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said 10 more cities would be allowed to have regular flights, including the economic powerhouses of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Nanjing, while charter flights would be allowed to another 13 regions
Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, currently allows direct flights to only four Chinese cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xiamen. File Photo.
Taipei: Taiwan’s government has announced that it will allow the resumption of more direct flights to China that had been stopped due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in a show of political goodwill to Beijing despite escalating military tension.
The island nation of Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, currently allows direct flights to only four Chinese cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xiamen — but before the pandemic multiple Chinese cities were connected to the country.
For some time now, China has been urging Taiwan to resume the flights, arguing against using the pandemic as a reason for further delay in operations.
Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said 10 more cities would be allowed to have regular flights, including the economic powerhouses of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Nanjing, while charter flights would be allowed to another 13 regions.
Mainland Affairs Council spokesperson Chan Chih-hung told the media it had considered China’s requests for which cities should see direct flights restored, and had chosen the 10 cities based on the large concentration of Taiwanese businesspeople there.
“China suggested 26 cities, which we also have taken into consideration. This move demonstrates our most sincere goodwill,” he said. “We also hope to build on the foundation of these resumed flights to gradually increase the exchange of goodwill gestures and cooperative interactions by both sides.”
Taiwan’s government has been trying to resume interactions, especially people-to-people exchanges, with China since lifting strict quarantine rules late last year, with President Tsai Ing-wen saying she hoped this could ease military tensions. However, China still refuses to talk to Tsai, believing she is a separatist. She says only Taiwan’s people can decide its future and strongly argues against China’s claims of sovereignty.
Taiwan and China began regular direct flights between both countries in 2009, after beginning charter flights in 2003. Before that, there were no direct flights since 1949, when the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan at the end of a civil war the with Communists.
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