Hijacked Plane Will End 2 Chinas’ 40-Year Silence : Taiwan to Negotiate on Aircraft

PEKING —  The national airline of Taiwan, under increasing pressure from Peking, agreed today to negotiate with China over the return of a cargo plane whose pilot defected to China. Such talks would end almost four decades of silence between the rival governments.

The offer shocked diplomats in Taipei, who said it represented a dramatic twist in government policy.

“I’m amazed,” was the reaction of one Western diplomat to the proposal for the first face-to-face meeting between Taiwanese and Chinese officials.

He said he believed it could open the way to further contacts between the two sides, bitter enemies since the Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after being defeated in civil war on the mainland.

The proposal for talks in Hong Kong was made by Taiwan’s 90% government-owned China Airlines to the Chinese national airline, CAAC.

Diplomats said they believed it was formulated at the highest level of government and would be seen by hard-liners in the ruling Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) as an unprincipled compromise with China.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China reported that it had not yet received the Taiwanese proposal, which was being relayed through Cathay Pacific Airways in Hong Kong. On Sunday China had offered to meet anywhere with the Taiwanese to settle the problem.

A Taiwanese airline Boeing 747 cargo plane destined for Hong Kong landed in the Chinese city of Canton on May 3. Its pilot, Wang Hsi-chueh, 56, announced that he wanted to defect because he wanted to be reunited with his family.

The defection embarrassed the Taiwanese government, which bans all direct contacts with the mainland.

Diplomats had thought Taipei would rather abandon the aircraft than negotiate and sacrifice its three basic principles of “no contact,” “no talks” and “no compromise” with Peking.

The government repeatedly spurned Chinese offers for talks but was criticized for inflexibility when it became clear that there was no prospect for the early release of two crewmen who were on the flight with Wang and who said they wanted to return home.

Taiwanese academics said they believed the government’s flexibility would earn praise internationally. They said the island has been seen as unreasonably stubborn in its dealings with China, which has made repeated peace overtures.