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BEIJING: China and Taiwan signed historic agreements on Friday
expected to see thousands more people travel every day between the
two traditional rivals in the coming months.
On the second day of landmark talks in Beijing
aimed at easing decades of tensions, negotiators agreed to establish
regular direct flights between China and Taiwan from July, finally
ending time-consuming forced stopovers in Hong Kong.
They will also triple the number of mainland
visitors allowed to travel to Taiwan each day to 3,000, in what
promises to be a major boost for the island’s tourism industry.
In a sign of the importance Beijing is placing
on the developments, China’s state-run national television
broadcasted the signing of the agreements between the heads of the
semi-official delegations involved in the talks.
They are part of a rapprochement between China
and Taiwan triggered by the election of the Kuomintang party’s Ma
Ying-jeou as the island’s president in March.
Ma rose to power on a platform of building
closer trade and political ties with China, in contrast to his
predecessor Chen Shui-bian, who deeply angered Beijing with his
efforts to steer Taiwan towards independence.
Trade and travel links between China and Taiwan
have been severely restricted since the two sides split at the end
of a civil war in 1949.
China’s communist rulers have insisted ever
since that Taiwan must be reunified with the mainland, by force if
necessary, and their relationship has been one of the world’s most
dangerous potential military flash points.
China stepped up its threats of using force
against Taiwan while Chen was in power, and continued building up
its stockpile of missiles and other military hardware targeted at
the island.
However, Ma’s election victory, followed by
his inauguration last month, has seen the temperature fall
dramatically between the two sides.
Chinese President Hu Jintao met Kuomintang chief
Wu Poh-hsiung in Beijing last month, during which agreement to
restart the formal dialogue was reached.
That meeting was the first between the heads of
the ruling parties of the two sides since Kuomintang forces
retreated to the island in 1949 and the communists took power in
Beijing.
In the agreement signed on Friday, the direct
flights will begin on July 4 and involve 36 services between China
and Taiwan each week. They will operate from Monday to Friday.
Carriers from each side will operate 18 flights,
according to details of the agreement published on China’s
official Xinhua news agency.
From July 18, each side will be able to send
3,000 tourists to the other each day. Mainland Chinese tourists will
have to travel in groups of between 10 and 40 and go through
registered tour agencies, Xinhua reported.
Under current rules, only 1,000 are allowed to
travel to the island and they must stop over in Hong Kong or another
third location. The only exception for that has been on national
holidays, when direct charter flights operate.
-- AFP
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