China Agrees to Return Taiwan’s 747 and 2 Crewmen in Hong Kong

China agreed Monday to allow Taiwan to reclaim, in Hong Kong, a Boeing 747 cargo plane and two crewmen who were flown to China on May 3 by a defecting pilot.

The move broke a deadlock in the first face-to-face negotiations in 37 years between the two nations.

During talks Saturday and Sunday at the offices of the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, airline representatives from Nationalist-run Taiwan and Communist China had disagreed on where the transfer of the plane should occur.

Another Meeting Today

China said Taiwan should pick up the plane on the mainland, but Taiwan said China should fly it to Hong Kong.

On Monday, however, China said a crew from its national airline, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, will fly the plane and the two crewmen to Hong Kong. Another meeting is scheduled for today to work out details of the transfer.

Zhang Ruipu, the head of the Chinese delegation, said China accepted the Taiwan proposal as a gesture of sincerity.

“We always maintain that there is no problem that cannot be solved between fellow countrymen through friendly and sincere discussions,” he told a news conference.

‘Not a Victory’

However, Chung Tsan-jung, the head of the Taiwan delegation, said China’s concession was “not a victory but a right” of Taiwan.

The China Airlines plane was en route from Bangkok, Thailand, to Hong Kong when its pilot, Wang Hsi-chuen, 57, diverted it to the southern Chinese city of Canton. Also aboard were co-pilot Tung Kung-shih, 57, and technician Chiu Ming-chih, 40.

Wang told a news conference in Peking that he defected because he wanted to be reunited with his 82-year-old father in the central Sichuan province. There was no indication that the two other crew members wanted to defect.

Taiwan officials have said they believe Wang was kidnaped, and they reserved the right to ask Peking later for the pilot’s return. Chung said China refused to let members of the Taiwan delegation telephone Wang to clarify the situation.

The talks were the first direct contact between Taipei and Peking since the Nationalists fled from the mainland to Taiwan after losing a civil war to the Communists in 1949.

The Nationalists, who claim to be China’s rightful government, have shunned all contact with Peking.

Both sides have insisted that the talks do not have political significance but are a business matter between two airlines, not governments.