MAC says direct links easy to do

Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that direct transportation between Taiwan and China would require no changes to the main statute on cross-strait relations and could be established if the Chinese agree to talk about it.

Tsai was reporting to the legislature's Home and Nations Committee about the MAC's progress in drafting amendments to the Statute Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例).

Lawmakers recently demanded extensive amendments to the statute to make it consistent with the current state of exchanges across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwanese businessmen and their relatives have traveled directly from China to Kinmen under the "small links" policy.

KMT lawmaker Chang Chang-tsai (張昌財) asked Tsai whether amendments to allow direct transportation were being drafted as part of the process.

Tsai said, however, that no part of the statute would require amendment if the government decided to lift the ban on direct transportation. She said the Executive Yuan would simply have to approve an administrative measure under articles 28, 29, and 30 of the statute.

When asked how negotiations might proceed, Tsai said that the issue could be discussed "either under the World Trade Organization framework or under any other existing cross-strait framework. It's up to the Chinese."

She added, however, that any negotiations would have to be led by the government rather than civil organizations.

Since the Chinese government refuses to talk with the ruling DPP government until it recognizes the "one China" principle, some have argued that Taiwan should negotiate with China through civil organizations.

But the MAC has always taken the position that any negotiations undertaken by non-governmental organizations without prior governmental authorization amount to the Taiwan government being treated by China as a local government, which cannot be tolerated.

PFP legislator Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) asked Tsai about the current state of negotiations between Taiwan and Hong Kong on the renewal of the Taiwan-Hong Kong aviation accord, which was extended to the end of June earlier this year.

Tsai said negotiations had entered the "stage of concrete detail." But she cautioned that she did not want to risk prejudicing the negotiations by elaborating in front of a legislative committee and would "report to those concerned once the new pact is signed."

Confirming a recent statement made by Minister of Transportation and Communications Ling Ling-san (林陵三), she said that the pact will be finalized before the current extension expires.

The existing five-year Taiwan-Hong Kong air pact originally expired on June 12 last year. In order to maintain normal flight services between Taiwan and Hong Kong, it has been extended twice.

Many have speculated that the difficulties of agreeing to a new pact arise from the MAC's insistence on governmental participation. The Chinese side favors negotiations between airline associations on behalf of the two governments.

The identity of the negotiators is a secret, but there is widespread media speculation that they are indeed airline associations.