Legislators push New Year charter flights

With the Cabinet soon to unveil its evaluation of a plan to allow cross-strait charter flights over the Lunar New Year holidays, proponents of the plan yesterday called for separating the issue from regular transport links with China.

KMT Legislator John Chang (章孝嚴), who has pushed for the flights on behalf of Taiwanese businesspeople in China, said Chinese airlines have agreed not to take part in the service and that worries over national security are exaggerated.

But officials from the Mainland Affairs Council reacted with the standard reply that they will handle the sensitive matter in line with the premier's instructions.

Premier Yu Shyi-kun has asked the council to make its stance known next Tuesday or Wednesday.

"Let's not equate the proposed charter flights with full-scale transportation across the Strait and thus impede the return journey of tens of thousands of China-based Taiwanese businesspeople," Chang told a public hearing in the legislature.

"The latter issue, I agree, will take government-to-government talks before it can be implemented," he said.

Close to 1 million Taiwanese do business in China. About 300,000 of them usually return to Taiwan for the Lunar New Year holiday, which will begin on Feb. 1 next year.

"Currently, they have to fly home via Hong Kong or Macao. Those who fail to secure a ticket will be forced to miss the annual family gathering," Chang said.

To speed up their trips, the legislator has proposed one-way, direct charter flights between Shanghai and Taipei from Jan. 25 to Feb. 5 of next year that will be available only to businesspeople.

He also proposed that only Taiwan's air companies will be allowed to operate the special service.

"Chinese airlines, aware that the flights will be chartered, have said they will not insist on the principle of reciprocity," Chang said.

Earlier, Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office said it welcomed cross-strait charter flights as long as they are conducted under the principle of equality and reciprocity.

The KMT lawmaker also dis-missed worries about national security, saying the planes can take the present Taipei-Hong Kong route without making a stopover.

"Or they can fly over Japan's Okinawa," Chang said. "Either way would make it unnecessary to cross the Taiwan Strait while still being cost-efficient."

He said some 30,000 business-people have indicated interest in the charter flights. The flights, he added, would require no political dialogue between Taiwan and China.

Chinese aeronautics officials have promised not to link the matter to the sovereignty feud, according to Chang.

Lai Wen-hsin (賴文鑫), a businessman based in Shanghai, said it is in Taiwan's interest to allow the charter flights.

"The return of masses of businessmen will be very good for domestic airlines and the consumer market as a whole," he said.

Andy Chang (張五岳), a China watcher at Tamkang University, also lent his support to the charter flights, saying they may serve to test the sincerity of China's goodwill gestures.

"Rather than passively listen to what it [China] says, we should observe what it does in practice," the scholar said.

KMT Legislator Chu Fong-chi (朱鳳芝) urged the government to approach the matter from another perspective.

"If the charter flights are not allowed, Taiwan's people will opt to head for China en masse for family reunions, a phenomenon that will add to China's economic prosperity," she cautioned.