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A DISGRUNTLED employee of a Chinese state-run firm, claiming to have explosives, hijacked a Chinese airliner to Taiwan yesterday - the ninth hijack since April and the second in four days.

  The Xiamen Airlines Boeing 737-200 with 92 passengers and eight crew on board, was on its way from the northeastern city of Harbin to the southeastern city of Xiamen, a police spokesman said.

  There were no injuries.

  Qi Dachuan, 23, a salesman of the Harbin branch of China National Light Industrial Products Import and Export Corporation, surrendered to authorities at Taipei's international airport, the spokesman said.

  Qi was quoted by police as saying he hijacked the plane because of a fight with his superior and because he was unhappy with ''China's policy and legal system''.

  Qi told the plane's crew he was carrying a triggering device linked to dynamite hidden in his baggage which would explode unless the pilot changed course.

  Police said there was no such device or dynamite on board.

  As in previous incidents, the hijacker would be detained for trial on air piracy charges and would not be sent back immediately, Taiwan's Vice-Communications Minister, Ma Chen-fang, said.

  The aircraft, crew and passengers returned to the mainland last night.

  Government spokesman Jason Hu said Premier Lien Chan had urged Beijing to ''demonstrate efficient actions'' to curb hijacking when semi-official organisations from the two sides meet in Taipei next week.

  Mr Hu said: ''We strongly condemn this kind of action. Hijacking is a crime [in Taiwan] like in any other country. In one of the hijacks a bar of soap was used. This time it's something in a pocket. Next time a toothpick will do.''   Yesterday's hijacking follows repeated pledges by senior officials that airport security and safety inspections would be stepped up.

  At the weekend, director of the state-owned Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) Jiang Zhuping convened a nationwide conference calling on cadres to make their best efforts to implement a State Council order for better air safety and security.

  Mr Jiang demanded that immediate steps be taken to identify problems, formulate new rules and tighten discipline.

  The hijack is set to increase tension between the two countries at the upcoming meeting between the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait and the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation.

  The last round of bilateral negotiations ended without agreement in Xiamen last month.



Ninth hijack since April