Three Noes

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The Three-Noes Policy (Chinese: 三不政策) is a policy in the 1980’s maintained by President Chiang Ching-kuo of the Republic of China (Taiwan), in response to the People’s Republic of China’s attempts to have direct contact with the ROC. When the United States broke diplomatic ties with the ROC in 1979, the PRC believed that it had complete leverage in convincing Taiwan’s government to talk. President Chiang Ching-kuo stubbornly refused, reiterating that there were to be “no contact, no compromise, and no negotiation” (不接觸，不談判，不妥協) with the Chinese Communists.

The hijacking of a Taiwan-based China Airlines cargo plane on May 3, 1986 shattered the “Three Noes” policy. The pilot Wang Shi-chuen subdued the two other members of the flight crew and commandeered the plane to Guangzhou, forcing the ROC government to publicly send unofficial envoys to negotiate in Hong Kong with PRC officials over the return of the plane and the flight crew. The pilot, credited by the PRC for reestablishing contact between Mainland China and Taiwan, received a hero’s welcome in Mainland China and became a senior PRC aviation official as well as serving as a so-called “Taiwanese delegate” to PRC government institutions.

During this time, many mainland China-born ROC armed forces veterans pressed President Chiang Ching-kuo to allow family reunions between the Chinese refugees who settled in Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War and their relatives on the mainland. President Chiang relented in 1987, authorizing the ROC Red Cross to issue permits allowing people from Taiwan to travel to Mainland China only for family reunions. This started the regular civilian and unofficial exchanges between the PRC and the ROC that continues to progress to this day.