A mainland official said on Wednesday that the central
government would offer help to disaster-hit Taiwan compatriots and
businessmen on the mainland.
"The Taiwan Affairs Office is currently looking for Taiwan
enterprises suffering snow disasters and would provide biggest
possible help to those affected," Yang Yi, spokesman of the Taiwan
Affairs Office of the State Council, or Cabinet, told a regular
news conference.
Tens of millions of people in central and south China's 14
provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions are suffering the
heaviest snow and sleet and the lowest temperatures in five
decades.
The snow has greatly affected homebound people for the upcoming
Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, with roads and railways cut
and airports iced in.
Yang said the Chinese mainland and Taiwan would arrange 94
cross-Strait charter flights during the upcoming festival, weather
permitting, the fifth such flight arrangement since 2003.
The flights will operate from Feb. 2 to Feb. 6 and from Feb. 11
to Feb. 15, according to the General Administration of Civil
Aviation of China (CAAC).
In previous years, 12 airline companies, six from each side of
the Strait, offered flights during the festival period. The
airports involved include Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen,
Taipei and Kaohsiung, according to the CAAC.
This year's Spring Festival, the first day of the first month of
the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb. 7. It is the most
important occasion for the Chinese, who traditionally had family
reunions at this time.
About 4 million people from Taiwan visit the Chinese mainland
annually and an increasing number of Taiwan residents stay on the
other side of the Taiwan Strait for business and study. But no
direct regular flight is available across the Taiwan Strait, a
situation that has held for more than five decades. Normally,
passengers must transfer at Hong Kong or Macao, costing more time
and money.
Yang said the mainland would spare no effort in realizing direct
regular flights across the Strait "as soon as possible".
He said many Taiwan businessmen on the mainland had expressed
the hope that airline companies could make it convenient for them
to return to Taiwan to cast their ballots, and various Taiwanese
associations across the mainland had made requests with airlines.
Meanwhile, Yang said the mainland government did not wish to be
"involved in the election of Taiwan leaders" scheduled in
March.
(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2008)