The historic chartered flights across the Taiwan Strait ended this week. Understandably, they were not as successful as their organisers had hoped. According to Taiwan's Ministry of Transportation and Communications, only 70 per cent of the tickets were sold.
But Taiwan, which was lukewarm about the idea from the beginning, may well have been inclined to highlight the negative - the 30 per cent of empty seats. While these flights were for the convenience of Taiwanese businesspeople on the mainland, it was officials in Beijing who gave their approval early, while Taiwan waited until very late. By then, many people had already made other arrangements for the Lunar New Year holidays.
The central government is clearly hoping these chartered flights will pave the way for direct flights between the two sides. On January 27, the day after the chartered flights began, the People's Daily published an editorial calling for cross-strait ties to be developed and promoting national reunification.
Two days later, another article predicted 'major progress' this year in establishing the 'three links' across the Taiwan Strait - direct trade, transport and postal services. It called on the administration of President Chen Shui-bian to acknowledge the 'one China' principle, after which, it said, 'peace on the Taiwan Strait can be guaranteed' and 'cross-strait ties can develop steadily'.
However, in Taiwan, there is little to suggest the Chen administration is so eager for the cross-strait links, and it certainly exhibits no interest in possible reunification.
In fact, the Taipei Times reported on Wednesday that Mr Chen had ruled out direct cross-strait flights, saying that, for national security reasons, civilian aircraft would not be allowed to fly directly across the Taiwan Strait even if air links with China were restored.