The Mainland Affairs Council yesterday said it would continue with plans to allow indirect cross-strait cargo flights starting on Sept. 25, despite complaints from China that Taiwan's government had made the decision unilaterally.
"We understand that there are many difficulties but we will try our hardest to solve these problems to implement the indirect cargo transportation service," said council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) vowed last Tuesday to establish cargo transportation links between Taiwan and China by Oct. 19.
The following day the council announced that flights would follow current routes, stopping in Hong Kong or Macau en route to and from Shanghai. The flights would mainly consist of scheduled charters once a day.
According to the council's proposal, only Taiwanese airliners would be allowed to operate the flights to Shanghai in a year-long trial.
Tsai said that the new measure demonstrated the government's sincerity in wanting to help China-based Taiwanese businesspeople elevate their global competitiveness.
"We thought the program would effectively solve the problem of bottlenecks in cross-strait transportation," she said.
She added that trial program will be extended if it goes well and receives a positive response from Beijing.
However, a board member of China's Civil Aviation Association, Pu Zhaozhou (浦照洲), issued a statement on Monday saying that the indirect air cargo links should be discussed under the principles of domestic jurisdiction and mutuality and with a future aim of opening direct flights.
Chen later reaffirmed that the opening of direct trade, transportation and mail links should be implemented in stages.
Speaking at a seminar and dinner party for leaders of Taiwanese businessmen associations in China, Chen said that the measure to create faster and more convenient cross-strait air cargo transportation will create a win-win situation for both sides of the Strait because it is practical to implement and maintains the status quo.
He said that the one-year program will adopt a similar model to the indirect charter flights operated during the Lunar New Year holiday this year between Taipei and Shanghai for China-based Taiwanese businesspeople and their families.
Following Pu's statement, the Chinese government yesterday rejected the council's proposal, saying that China remains firm and clear on the direct-links issue.
"The air cargo transportation service is a kind of cross-strait economic affair, which should be left to the private sector to negotiate," said Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan (唐家璇). "The Chinese government's stance is that the measure should be mutually beneficial."
Responding to Tang's remarks, Tsai said yesterday that the council would not give up its plans.
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:
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