Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) showed muted support for President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) call for talks next year on direct transportation links with China, and used the opportunity to push for his long-held dream of turning Taipei's domestic Sungshan Airport into the main cross-strait terminal.
Ma made his comments during a address in Washington to a luncheon meeting of the US-Taiwan Business Council.
However, in an impromptu press conference with Washington-based Taiwanese reporters after the speech, Ma reiterated his opposition to Chen's direct links initiative, saying that unless the political aspects of cross-strait relations are settled, technical efforts such as expanded economic ties cannot be successful.
"Just a few days ago, our [president] announced that he will press the plan to establish direct links with the mainland, and -- hopefully, by the end of next year -- we will be able to see results, Ma told some 100 US business representatives, scholars and luncheon attendees.
"He might be a little bit optimistic, but at least he has recognized the need to really beef up the effort in this regard,"Ma said.
In his speech promoting Taipei as a regional business center for US firms, Ma noted that "at the moment, you can't fly directly to the Chinese mainland from Taipei. How can you expect the top-notch companies to use Taiwan as a regional operational center?" he asked.
The answer, Ma said, would be to use Sungshan as the main cross-strait terminal -- instead of CKS International Airport -- which, he said, would prove inadequate for the increased traffic direct links would generate.
"If we started direct flights between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland, it won't take too long before Chiang Kai-shek Airport will become saturated," he said.
He added that the number of flights "will quickly surpass the total number of all aircraft between Taiwan and the rest of the world, and that would certainly make Chiang Kai-shek inadequate."
The use of the Sungshan airport, Ma said, would save one hour in travel time at each end of a flight from Taipei's industrial areas and Shanghai. It would take only 15 minutes from the Nankang industrial park in eastern Taipei to the airport and 80 minutes from Taipei to Shanghai, Ma said, allowing executives to make a return trip in one day, without having an overnight layover in Shanghai.
After the luncheon, in remarks to Taiwanese reporters, Ma reiterated his opposition to Chen's direct links proposal.
The plan "will meet with great difficulties because he advocates one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait," Ma said.
Chen's desire to have flights by the end of next year "will make the negotiations very complicated," unless the political talks between Taiwan and China are completed before such "technical" efforts as direct transportation links are tried, he said.
"If he continues to advocate one country on each side, maybe that will have a good impact on his supporters in Taiwan, but he will have, I think, great difficulty to get the other side to the negotiating table," Ma said.
Ma said it is "very important to go back to the 1992 consensus" before attempting to engage in direct-link negotiations. "That is a formula that both sides can agree upon," he said.
According to pan-blue camp politicians such as Ma, the 1992 consensus was an agreement between Beijing and Taipei in which both sides agreed to "one China" -- but allowed that each side had its own interpretation of what that "one China" meant.
Pan-green politicians, including then-president Lee Tung-hui (
Ma spent a day in Washington during which he also met with officials of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Health and Human Services Department to discuss SARS, emergency preparedness and other urban issues.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai