New era in ties

Today's inauguration of direct flights, shipping and postal services across the Taiwan Straits signals a new era. It ends the nearly six-decade ban on regular links between the two sides.

The results are the efforts of almost 30 years of talks by both sides, and most importantly, of trust and goodwill.

The establishment of three direct links - trade, transport and postal services - was first proposed by the mainland in 1979, hoping to end cross-Straits hostility for the benefit of the two economies and its people.