MAC denies links promise broken

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) denied yesterday allegations by PFP lawmakers that it had reneged on a promise made in June to establish direct transportation links between Penghu and China.

"PFP lawmakers said that the council's chairwoman, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), should be held responsible for breaking her promise to establish Penghu's `small three links' with China. However, the policy was implemented in July. PFP legislators apparently failed to notice this and their accusation totally distorts the facts," a news release from the council stated.

Penghu is included in the legislation that introduced the "small three links," in which the links are to be implemented for Penghu on a case-by-case basis only -- ie, on specific dates stipulated by the central government based on an application from the Penghu County Government. This requirement was listed due to national security concerns, since Penghu is close to the middle line of the Taiwan Strait.

Since the "small three links" were established last year, Penghu has taken advantage of them only once -- on July 23 this year, when Penghu held a religious activity during which a statue of the goddess Matsu from the Tianhou Temple in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, was brought to the archipelago for a pilgrimage.

Despite this, however, PFP Legislative convener Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧), along with her party colleagues Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) and Feng Ting-kuo (馮定國), held a news conference yesterday morning to accuse Tsai of breaking a pledge made this June that, within three months, the council would ensure that a boat carrying passengers would travel between Penghu and China.

"Tsai should take political responsibility for breaking her promise. Three months have past, but the Cabinet has taken no action to establish Penghu's direct shipping link with China," Shen said.

She wondered how the legislative and executive branches could negotiate with each other in the future given what she said was the disregard for this agreement.

"The Executive Yuan should consider the serious consequences caused by this," Shen added.

Shen also said that in amendments to the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例), which will be reviewed immediately by the legislature, the Cabinet did not change a single word of those articles regulating direct air and shipping links with China.

"The Cabinet apparently views the issue [of direct transport links with China] as a political one rather than a consensus resulting from the Economic Development Advisory Conference. They do not seriously want to implement the policy. We will propose our own version of amendments on the statute to push for direct transport links," Liu said.