Beijing calls for more direct flights between China, Taiwan

Beijing, Feb 8 (EFE).- The Taiwan Affairs Office of the Chinese State Council said Wednesday that the country “will continue working on the resumption of more direct flights” between both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Spokeswoman Zhu Fengliang said she hoped Taipei “does not use the pandemic as an excuse to hinder the resumption of more direct routes,” the official Global Times newspaper reported.

Zhu said the pandemic in China is “under control” and “compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and the aviation industry are eagerly awaiting the full resumption of non-stop flights” between the territories.

The spokesperson said Beijing urged Taiwanese authorities on Feb. 1 to restart air routes connecting both sides of the Taiwan Strait, mostly suspended as of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out and both territories applied strict restrictions on international air traffic.

The Chinese authorities requested priority for the resumption of direct connections between the island and 16 cities, including some of the most important in the country, such as the southeastern Canton and Shenzhen.

China, which withdrew mandatory quarantines for all incoming passengers on Jan. 8 after almost three years of almost total border closure, requires a negative PCR carried out in the previous 48 hours for all travelers from abroad.

Taiwan this week stopped carrying out PCR tests on travelers from China, a measure it adopted at the end of December as a result of the increase in Covid-19 cases there. EFE

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