A man who tried to hijack a Chinese airliner, threatening to commit suicide if the pilot did not divert the flight to Taiwan, was subdued and the plane landed safely, state media said on Sunday.
Passengers had thought the man was drunk, but the state Xinhua news agency said it was later determined that he was not.
No one was hurt when the man tried to hijack the Xiamen Airlines flight MF8066 bound for coastal Xiamen from the northeastern city of Harbin on Saturday, Xinhua reported.
The plane landed as scheduled in Fujian province, opposite the island of Taiwan, after the man was subdued, it said.
China saw a rash of hijackings in the early 1990s, mostly by people demanding to go to Taiwan and air security was tightened. It adopted additional security measures after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, including putting armed guards on flights.
Fujian lies directly across the Taiwan Strait from the self-ruled, democratic island of 23 million that Beijing considers part of Chinese territory.
Xiamen Airlines is 60 percent owned by China Southern Airlines.
