Air China

Chinese police released the Boston-based editor of a dissident literary magazine on Saturday and sent him back to the United States, removing an irritant in shaky but improving China-U.S. ties. The editor, Bei Ling, arrived in San Francisco on Saturday. As he left Beijing, Bei said Chinese and U.S. diplomats arranged his release to smooth the way for President Jiang Zemin's trip to New York next month for a U.N. summit and talks with President Clinton.

Air China has opened a Los Angeles office and plans to begin flying nonstop from LAX to Beijing (with service continuing to Shanghai) every Wednesday and Sunday starting June 7. Round-trip LAX-Beijing economy fares will start at $1,366, a spokesman said. Reservations: (310) 215-3366. With the addition of Air China, three of China's four national airlines now fly out of LAX. One of them, China Eastern, offers the only other nonstop flights from LAX to Beijing.

The first nonstop flight between Guangzhou (formerly Canton) in southern China and the U.S. pulled into Los Angeles International Airport last week--part of an LAX plan to become the top U.S. passenger and cargo hub for China's national airlines. China Southern Airlines is now flying Boeing 777 aircraft nonstop between LAX and Guangzhou three times a week. (Other carriers require a stop in Hong Kong and a change of airlines.) The plane departs LAX at 1:30 a.m. Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

For eight years, U.S. corporate giants have watched with frustration and envy as top leaders from rival industrial countries traveled to China and returned home laden with lucrative contracts, while American leaders took the moral high ground and stayed home. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has been to China twice.

Launching the highest-level official U.S. visit to China since the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989, Vice President Al Gore arrived here Monday, and a grateful China thanked the United States by signing two major deals with American companies. Gore and Chinese Premier Li Peng witnessed today's signings of a $685-million order for five Boeing Co. 777-200 passenger jets and an agreement with General Motors to create a $1.3-billion joint venture to produce 100,000 Buicks a year in China.

The sale to China Air of five Boeing 777 jetliners for about $685 million represents the company's biggest deal with a Chinese airline in two years and bolsters its lead over rival Airbus Industrie in the fast-growing China market. The sale, announced today, marks a breakthrough for Boeing, whose business in China stalled last year because of the country's trade friction with the United States. The transaction coincides with a visit by Vice President Al Gore, the most senior U.S.

Boeing Co. said Friday that it won a $510-million order for three 747-400 aircraft from Air China, the nation's flag carrier. The order breaks an 18-month drought in Boeing sales to China. Company executives said during visits to Beijing in April and June that as many as $4 billion in new orders were awaiting approval by the Chinese government. "This is good news," Boeing spokeswoman Cindy Smith said. The planes will be purchased through China Aviation Supplies Corp. for Air China.

You cannot rely on air travel advice within China from anyone who has not been there lately ("Domestic Carriers in Russia, China Shunned," Nov. 17). Recent changes in China's domestic air service are amazing, all-pervasive--and mostly positive. In the past year, I have traveled on Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Yunnan Airlines, China Southern Airlines and China Southwest Airlines, most recently last month, throughout Southwest China. It is an injustice to place the stigma of Russian airlines on China's state-run system.