After negotiations on Taiwan-Hong Kong aviation rights yesterday ended after three hours, a Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official said that the talks had "proceeded smoothly," despite local Chinese-language media reports that they had broken down.
While the government was tight-lipped about the reasons for the brevity of the talks, the Civil Aeronautics Adminsitration (CAA) hinted that there was truth in speculation that they had foundered on Taiwan's insistence that a new aviation pact be signed between the two sides' governments.
The official, Jan Jyh-horng (詹志宏), director of the MAC's Research and Planning Department, and a member of Taiwan's eight-person negotiating team, held a press conference after the talks ended. Taipei and Hong Kong representatives had met in Taipei in the morning to negotiate a new Taiwan-Hong Kong air accord. A second extension to the current accord expires at the end of June.
Jan said the atmosphere in the negotiations was harmonious, and that each side had agreed to receive a proposal from the other for further study, and that a further round of official negotiations would be held "as early as possible."
"We engaged in a broad exchange of opinions, and the Taipei delegation gave the Hong Kong representatives concrete plans such as the number of flights intended to operate between the two sides," said Jan.
He added that the two sides had agreed not to disclose details of the meeting in order to ensure that the next negotiation also proceeds smoothly.
As far as widespread media speculation that the negotiation had broken down because the MAC demanded Taiwanese official bodies sign the new agreement, was concerned, Jan said, "We did not discuss this in the meeting at all."
Overall, Jan said he was optimistic about signing the new accord by the end of June.
As to how the agreement would be signed and who would represent the two entities signing it, Jan declined to elaborate.
But comments made at a second conference held at the same time by Chang Kuo-cheng (
"No conclusion was reached. [The Hong Kong side] will take back our proposal and study it," said Chang, who added that there was a divergence in the way the two sides wanted to handle the agreement.
While not specifying exactly what had led to the failure to reach a conclusion, Chang did say that aviation agreements between Taiwan and all other countries were based on international standards and comprised two parts: a main contract and a supplemental agreement.
Chang explained that the main contract usually detailed procedures for flight crew entering and leaving the country and ticket prices, while the supplemental part covered the allocation of flight numbers.
Hong Kong wants to use the 1996 model used to draw up the current pact, for which airlines conducted the negotiations and signed the agreements, which detailed only the basics such as flight frequency.
Chang refused to be drawn on whether Taiwan was looking to classify the route as international, rather than domestic as preferred by China.
"All places are different and the problems [in signing a deal with Hong Kong] still exist," said Chang.
The existing five-year Taiwan-Hong Kong aviation agreement was signed in 1996. In order to maintain normal Taiwan-Hong Kong flight services, the original pact has twice been twice extended, in June and December last year.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods