by-case basis. The flights, between January 29-February 20, have paved the way for launching more charter flights and even regular flights between Taiwan and China, which split after the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Taiwan has banned direct air, sea and postal links with China since 1949 for national security reasons. However, under pressure from Taiwan businessmen and the public, Taipei agreed to loosen and eventually drop the bans. Since Taiwan allowed indirect trading with China in 1987, Taiwan's indirect trade with China via Hong Kong tripled from 5.7 billion U.S. dollars in 1988 to 23.7 billion in the first 11 months of last year. Beijing, which sees Taiwan as its breakaway province, has repeatedly urged Taipei to remove the bans to pave the way for Taiwan's unification with the mainland. Taipei said it will not open the links until Beijing has shown goodwill towards Taipei.
