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Direct daily flights start between China-Taiwan: state media
AFP - 16 minutes ago
SHANGHAI (AFP) - - China and Taiwan launched direct daily flights and other transport links on Monday in an historic moment for the two sides that have enjoyed a rapid warming of relations this year.
Direct shipping and postal services across the Taiwan Strait also started on Monday, officials announced, ending the tedious and costly delays of having to go via a third party's territorial waters or air space.
"It's... a dream come true," Yang Jianrong, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office in Shanghai, told reporters shortly after the first flight from the eastern Chinese city departed for the island.
"It has come at a perfect time, as closer ties will help better utilise resources and combat economic woes."
The first flight from the mainland left the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen for Taiwan at 7:20 am (2320 GMT Sunday).
A commercial flight from the Taiwanese capital of Taipei also departed for Shanghai at 8:00 am.
In total, 12 air carriers from the two sides applied for 101 flights in the first week of daily services, providing links between four Taiwanese and 12 Chinese cities.
China and Taiwan have been separated since the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still claims the island as its own.
Communist authorities in China have threatened to invade Taiwan should it ever seek formal independence.
The transport barriers have long been one of the most frustrating side-effects of the cross-strait tensions for people wanting to travel between the island and the mainland.
Relations between the two sides have improved dramatically this year, following the election in March of Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan's president.
Top officials from both sides met in Beijing in June for the first direct dialogue between the two parties in 10 years.
Those talks led to the launching of the regular direct flights between China and the island, as well as other measures to boost tourism.
Direct flights have already been running for the past few months, but only at weekends, and their ramping up to daily services has been seen as a confirmation that relations remain on the right track.
In another significant step, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Lien Chan, former Taiwan premier and honorary chairman of the island's ruling Kuomintang party, on the sidelines of an APEC summit in Peru last month.
It was the highest-level official meeting to take place overseas between the rivals since their split in 1949.
Taiwan's transportation ministry estimates local airlines and passengers will save around three billion Taiwan dollars (90 million US) a year, and shipping companies around half that, with the direct links.
Shanghai Airlines chairman Zhou Chi was also upbeat at the send-off for his carrier's first flight on Monday.
"I think this is a market with huge growth potential given there are millions of Taiwanese here," Zhou told reporters.
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