The Chinese mainland has come up with a detailed plan for regular cross-Strait charter flights, the Civil Aviation Administration of China announced yesterday.

According to the agreement, signed on November 4 by Chen Yunlin, president of the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, and Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation, the two sides will launch 54 new passenger charter flights each week.

Previously, flights across the Taiwan Strait were only offered on weekends and during the country's four major festivals.

Three new companies, Sichuan, Shandong and Shenzhen airlines, have been assigned by the CAAC to operate the weekly flights along with the original six companies, Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Hainan, Xiamen and Shanghai airlines.

The mainland will open 16 terminals, in Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Dalian, Guilin, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Fuzhou, Qingdao, Changsha, Haikou, Kunming, Xi'an, Shenyang, Tianjin and Zhengzhou, for the new passenger charter flights.

The sovereign members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organization will handle Chinese Taipei's participation in APEC meetings, on the principle of the one-China policy, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said yesterday.

"All sovereign members of APEC abide by the one-China principle and hope to handle problems based on this principle, as well as relevant memoranda of understanding and regulations," Qin said.

(Shanghai Daily November 21, 2008)