Cross-Straits Flights to Carry No FlagsCivil aircraft from China's mainland and Taiwan will carry no flags of national identity, after the two sides agree to open direct flights across the Taiwan Straits.Leaders of the civil aviation industries from China's mainland and Taiwan reached the consensus Friday, when leaders of a committee on the exchange of air transportation between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits under the China Civil Aviation Association met with a Taiwan delegation composed of officials from six airlines based in the island province. They held the same opinion that both sides have suffered great losses for the failure to realize the direct air links across the straits so far. Direct cross-straits flights are key to the development of the civil aviation industries of the two sides, they said. Direct air links are part of a package of proposals known as the "Three Direct Links" put forward by the mainland two decades ago, which refers to direct links in trade, transportation, and postal services. The Taiwan Authorities have drawn more and more criticism from the Chinese across the world for their attempts to use the opening of the direct links as a bargaining chip in the cross-straits talks and negotiations. |
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