A Taiwanese passenger plane is scheduled this morning to enter Chinese airspace for the first time since 1949, with top officials being among the first to take the landmark charter flight to Shanghai.
The China Airlines (CAL) CI-586 is due to arrive at the Pudong International Airport at 9am and then make a return flight to Taiwan two hours later following a short welcoming ceremony
About 40 crew and 250 passengers, mostly Taiwanese businesspeople coming home for the Lunar New Year holidays, will make the return trip that includes a 50-minute stopover in Hong Kong before landing at the CKS International Airport at 3:40pm.
As favorable talks continue between Taiwan and China over the charter service, Beijing yesterday agreed to allow Jan Jyh-horng (詹志宏) -- director of the Mainland Affairs Council's department of Planning and Research who also doubles as the deputy secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) -- to take the outgoing flight to Shanghai to participate in the celebrations.
Jan will also take the return flight to Taiwan.
Jan's trip to China marks the first time that SEF personnel have been allowed to enter the country since former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) defined relations between Taiwan and China as "special state-to-state" in nature in 1999.
"We welcome China's goodwill gesture. It is for us another step forward in terms of cross-strait relations and we look forward to the next step," Jan told the Taipei Times.
Jan said that Taiwan floated the idea of his trip about one week ago, but was not sure whether China would agree.
Jan said that his mission to Shanghai is simple -- to understand and observe the service's operation and to learn from this unique chance for Taiwan to interact with China in the future.
Other charter flights during the New Year holiday will travel without high-ranking officials aboard.
CAL spokesman Roger Han (韓梁中) said that the welcoming ceremony this morning will involve officials from Shanghai and Taipei, members of the Association of Taiwanese Businesspeople in Shanghai and crew members from CAL and its counterpart, China Eastern Airlines.
Han also said that Lunar New Year cake and other gifts will be given to passengers.
When the flight returns to the CKS Airport, MAC Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tong (
The officials are due to make remarks at a brief welcoming ceremony.
The initiator of the charter service, KMT Legislator John Chang (章孝嚴), along with fellow KMT lawmakers Lee Chuan-chia (李全教) and Tsai Chia-fu (蔡家福), and DPP Legislator Hsu Jung-hsu (許榮淑) were already in Shanghai yesterday preparing to take part in the ceremony.
Meanwhile, in Kinmen, Chen Chung-hong (
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