The Taiwan authorities' resistance to a direct air route across the Taiwan Straits means that all flights between the island and the mainland must detour via Hong Kong or Macao.

The case of the girl has highlighted a "humanitarian" aspect to the controversy. A donated heart cannot survive more than four hours after removal from the donor's body, said Wang Chunsheng, a doctor at the Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital. The girl is so seriously ill she would not survive a long flight from Taiwan to Shanghai to have the transplant operation.

The Taipei-based hospital treating the girl and the newspaper, the Shanghai Overseas Chinese News jointly issued an appeal for help, which was widely echoed in the leading mainland media and websites, including those in Beijing, Xi'an, Hangzhou and Guangzhou.

Whether the Taiwanese authorities permit a "humanitarian direct flight" is yet to be seen.

Recently an agreement was reached between the two sides to allow Taiwanese airlines to operate indirect charter flights during the forthcoming Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, but they will still be subject to stopovers in Hong Kong or Macao.

A year ago the 11-year-old girl was diagnosed with the same heart disease as her two elder brothers, one of whom died because a suitable donor was not found in time. The other survived after a successful heart transplant, the parents revealed.

The girl needs an O blood-type heart from a donor under 50 years of age, who weighed under 50 kilograms, said the Taipei-based hospital.

There are 6,000 patients in Taiwan awaiting organ transplants, but only a few hundred donors.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2003)