The government rejected a proposal from Beijing to negotiate with Taiwanese aviation representatives about cross-strait flights yesterday, saying that discussion was impossible under the shadow of the military threat from China.
Just three days before China is slated to pass legislation that would set the stage for military aggression against Taiwan, Chinese aviation official Pu Zhaozhou (
Pu extended the invitation in his non-governmental capacity as the Chinese Civil Aviation Association executive director and Straits Aviation Exchange Commission vice chairman.
Beijing has been pushing for co-operation on cross-strait chartered passenger flights during Tomb-sweeping Day, which this year falls on April 5.
The invitation, however, was received with scorn in Taipei, with the nation's top cross-strait policymaking body saying the proposal was a thinly disguised attempt at bringing about political unification with China.
"The Taiwanese people can see right off the bat that this is just part of China's `war for unification,'" Mainland Affairs Council Spokesman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said.
Asked whether the government would accept Pu's invitation, Chiu responded: "Given the military threats from Beijing, could we possibly accept?"
Lo also confirmed that he would not be taking up China's offer.
"It's impossible that I go, as the government has not authorized me to do so," Lo said yesterday afternoon, indicating that he planned to relay the government's decision to Pu soon.
As the government's authorized representative, Lo hammered out an agreement with Pu in January that resulted in Lunar New Year chartered direct flights.
When Beijing first proposed last month another round of flights next month, Taiwan had said at the time that it would have to complete its assessment of the Lunar New Year flights before making a decision on Tomb-sweeping Day flights.
As Taiwan had earlier set cross-strait cargo flights as a priority, China's call for passenger charters next month was given a lukewarm reception.
Chiu said that government agencies had met earlier this month to review the impact the Lunar New Year flights had on cross-strait relations, but said that the "anti-secession" law added a new dimension to deliberations.
"The anti-secession law will inevitably become another factor we consider in assessing future opportunities for cross-strait exchange" Chiu said yesterday morning during a scheduled press conference.
Cabinet spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) echoed Chiu's sentiments, telling the Bloomberg newswire yesterday that Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) would not "make any decisions [on closer air links] in the next week or two because the atmosphere with the passage of the anti-secession law isn't good."
Bloomberg further quoted Cho as saying "We don't want to respond to China's bad intentions with a goodwill gesture. We just want to wait and see."
Chiu warned that the bill would cause considerable backlash in Taiwan and that the ambiguous terms Beijing had employed in its proposed anti-secession bill would further strain relations. He pointed out that "non-peaceful means" could be anything, citing military blockades, economic embargos, and diplomatic intimidation as possibilities.
Chiu also said that the ambiguity of China's anti-secession bill was enough to put a halt to the perceived warming in cross-strait relations in recent months.
"What concerns us more is the bill's reference to `other necessary measures.' The uncertainty that this phrase poses will be a significant assault on future cross-strait economic cooperation," Chiu said.
also see story:
Freeze on charter flight talks urged
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 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
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS