Because Taiwan and China had reached a consensus on negotiating terms for direct charter flights during the Lunar New Year holiday, technical problems would be ironed out with further talks, the Cabinet said yesterday.
"I believe that practical negotiations over direct charter flights for Lunar New Year will bear fruit, and that both sides will eventually hammer out a mutually acceptable solution," Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
"Our stance on the matter is clear, and that's mutual respect and practical negotiations," he said.
The Mainland Affairs Council has organized for the Taipei Airlines Association (TAA) to represent the government in negotiations with Beijing.
Because the China Civil Aviation Association had sent a letter to the head of the TAA inviting him to discuss details of any agreement, Chen said he felt that Beijing would not use the status of the negotiators to oppose the flights.
Chen was speaking yesterday morning after China demanded that government officials be banned from attending the talks between aviation authorities.
This year, one of the TAA board members is Billy Chang (
When asked to describe the status of this year's TAA negotiators, Chen said they were "entrusted by the government to act as representatives in negotiating the matter."
Unchanged
Chen also affirmed the government's principles for negotiation and said that they were still in force.
"We adopted the `two-way, multiple-destination and non-stop' principles for charter flights for the Lunar New Year holiday in November, and this has remained in place unchanged since then," he said.
"Basically, what the Chinese government proposes is similar to what we have initiated. Even if there are differences, both sides should sit down and talk about them," he said.
China has ruled out the participation of Taiwan's cross-strait officials in negotiating direct flights, saying both sides' airlines could settle on the precise details themselves.
Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office yesterday held a press conference explaining its position.
"It is inappropriate for officials from Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council and the Straits Exchange Foundation to join negotiations," said He Shizhong (
Rejecting Taiwan's appeal for official negotiations, He said the request was "unrealistic."
But He did not indicate that officials from other government agencies would be prevented from joining negotiations.
Model
The Mainland Affairs Council has insisted that talks be based on the negotiating model for an aviation agreement between Taiwan and Hong Kong in 2002, in which the TAA headed a delegation composed of aviation leaders, council officials and Civil Aeronautics Administration personnel acting as advisors.
Asked by reporters whether Billy Chang could join the negotiations as an advisor, He said, "we can communicate on this," without elaborating.
He said that these direct flights had nothing to do with any previous air-transportation agreements.
"The flights are a special arrangement made to facilitate trips home for the large number of China-based Taiwanese businessmen and compatriots for the Lunar New Year," he said.
The airlines could communicate on technical problems and details of the flights without government involvement, he said.
"This is the most efficient and practical way of preparing for the implementation of the flights," He said.
Pu Zhaozhou (浦照洲), an official with the China Civil Aviation Association, said it would be easier for the airlines to discuss the exact details between themselves.
"There would be no comments from laymen cropping up during negotiations," Pu added.
Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Xiamen are proposed departure points for the flights, He said, and urged Taiwan to open airports in Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung to receive them.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
RSS