What a long way to go home!

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, November 23, 2003

What a long way to go home!

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I have several young friends from Taiwan who have been flourished in their businesses on China's mainland. But recently I found their elation was mixed with some worries when I met them. I asked them why. They told me that they are worrying about how they can return smoothly to Taiwan or bring their family to the Chinese mainland for family reunion in the upcoming Spring Festival. One problem is that it is not easy for them to get a ticket home. Another is an even more troublesome problem: given the transportation means available, the trip will take them a whole day on the way whether to travel from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan or the other way round. This is an unbearably tiring job. They are greatly bothered thinking of the long journey ahead complaining that the Taiwan authority don��t care about the people and sigh over the long way home. In fact, any person doing business in the Chinese mainland from Taiwan would share their complaints and troubles.

As the Spring Festival is a traditional festival for the Chinese nation and the day for the whole family to get together to enjoy love and happiness, it is a grand occasion for the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. And so for the Taiwan businessmen working on the Chinese mainland desiring to go back to Taiwan or their family to come over for reunion during the festival days is quite understandable. Departments concerned on the Chinese mainland are making a favorable consideration of their wishes so as to facilitate their coming and going. The arrangement of chartered flights for them during the last Spring Festival serves a good lesson.

By the end of last lunar year, voices in Taiwan called for direct-chartered flights between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait during the Spring Festival. The Chinese mainland agreed that it was a reasonable request for Taiwan businesspersons working in China's mainland to travel home directly across the Strait during the festival by offering them with chartered flights. The mainland also proposed that no matter which way would be taken, regular or irregular flights of chartered planes, the airliners from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan share the service supply on the principle of "a direct and two-way approach and mutual benefit". Naturally, airliners from the mainland expressed their wishes to participate in the initiative actively and provide good service for people from Taiwan doing business on the mainland. It was a pity that their hope didn't come true. Nevertheless, the airliners in China's mainland out of the affection for the compatriots of the same flesh and blood still showed great sincerity and kindness by agreeing that the Taiwan counterpart made the flight for the first time while sharing charted planes service next time. It was due to their joint efforts and departments concerned that guaranteed effective support and considerable services for the implementation of the chartered planes program as quickly as possible.

Although the joint efforts of the compatriots both on the mainland and Taiwan led to the first flight of the chartered planes, the flight was neither direct nor two-ways, but devious and one-way instead. This hadn't satisfied the real wishes of Taiwan businessmen working on China's mainland, nor had it offered real convenience for their trip to and fro Taiwan. The way of doing things by leaving aside something close at hand to seek for what lies far and wide apart imposed more burdens on the airliners and passengers, raised high costs, wasted time, and ran against the original intention for the direct-chartered flights.

Time passed swiftly and another Spring Festival is now approaching. Voices for direct flight of chartered planes rouse again. In the light of the lessons acquired last year, businesspersons from Taiwan working on China's mainland are calling for direct flight without stopover and more air-routes for their real convenient trips. In the meantime, airliners on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are looking forward to a fair share of the service. Under the pressure from the public, departments concerned in Taiwan authority agreed to consider "direct two-way flight". But a careful study of their proposal betrayed that it still remained to be a "devious one-way flight". Their so-called "two-way" flight policy only allows the airliners from China's mainland to lease the Taiwan planes or the airliners from China's mainland and Taiwan to rent cabin seats from each other. In this way Taiwan authority keeps on hindering mainland airliners' participation into the flight service across the strait. And their so-called "direct flight" is no more than a repetition of last year's practice by regulating that a stopover at the third place is a must.

The Chinese mainland has always advocated the direct links across the strait as early as possible and is ready as always to promote any initiatives that favor the direct links for the people across the strait and for Taiwan businesspersons. It is sincerely hoped that the Taiwan authority would really care about the long-term wellbeing of the people on both sides of the strait and the actual needs of the Taiwan businesspersons, provide them with convenience for returning to Taiwan or bringing their families to China's mainland for reunion in the Spring Festival Days.

(Article from People's Daily on Nov.19 and translated by PD Online)

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