Taiwan visit postponed because of crash

Zhang Zhijun, the mainland's head of Taiwan affairs, postponed a visit to Kinmen County, Taiwan, in the aftermath of the TransAsia Airways crash on Feb 4 that killed at least 40 passengers.

Zhang was scheduled to lead a delegation to Kinmen on Feb 7 and 8, during which he was to meet his counterpart Wang Yu-chi, Taiwan's mainland affairs chief. Representing the further improvement of the cross-Straits communication mechanism, their meeting was supposed to address issues concerning local people's livelihoods. However, it had to give way to the rescue efforts after the crash.

The postponement of Zhang's trip was of course, an unimpeachable response to the crash in which at least 26 of the 31 mainland passengers on board the plane perished.