Although the issue of charter flights to China is economic in nature, the issue should considered within the framework of overall cross-strait transportation policy, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday.
"As we're ready to discuss the issue at the negotiating table at any given time, we'll never lower our negotiation standards simply because we are dealing with irregular charter flights," Cabinet Spokesman Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) quoted the premier as saying yesterday.
If the both sides fail to reach a consensus through negotiations, Yu said that under the principle of maintaining indirect cross-strait air transportation, the government will allow Taiwanese airlines to apply to the Chinese authorities to enter China via Hong Kong or Macau and bring Taiwanese businessmen and their families home via the same route.
Yu made the remarks during the weekly closed-door Cabinet affairs meeting yesterday morning.
Yu first announced the government's move in the legislature on Tuesday after calls from KMT Legislator John Chang (
Shanghai has the largest concentration of Taiwanese business-people in China. Some 300,000 to 400,000 Taiwanese are estimated to live and work there.
If China agrees to the plan, such charter flights could operate from Jan. 27 to Feb. 5.
CKS International Airport and Hsiaokang Airport in Kaohsiung would be authorized to handle the charters flights, according to Yu. Both airports already handle regular flights to Hong Kong and Macau.
Under the government's plan Charter flights would depart Taiwan without passengers and only Taiwanese airlines may apply to operate such flights.
Meanwhile, responding to the opening speech of Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) at the Communist Party's 16th National Congress on Friday, Yu said that he "feels deeply sorry" about the address.
"His report delivers only one message, that is, China has not changed its Taiwan policy of `one China' and `one country, two systems' and has not giving up the possible use of military force against Taiwan," Yu said.
In Friday's speech, Jiang called on Taiwan to shelve political disputes and resume talks with China under the "one China" principle. He also reiterated Beijing's commitment to opening transportation links with Taiwan.
Although Taiwan would like to resume talks and negotiations with China as soon as possible, Yu said, the bottom line is that the talks should be conducted without any political preconditions or under any political framework.
"The government of the Republic of China will do whatever it can to improve cross-strait relations. However, sound cross-strait interaction should be based on respect for the political reality across the Taiwan Strait," Yu said.
As for future cross-strait policies, Yu said that they will be made under President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) principles, which are "peaceful settlement and perpetual cooperation."
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater