Plans for the upcoming launch of the Taichung International Airport came under fire yesterday when opposition legislators accused transportation officials of prematurely opening the airport's doors for the sake of gaining political points in the election campaign.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) also assured lawmakers yesterday that it would be prepared to accommodate China-based Taiwanese businessmen returning to Taiwan to vote in the presidential elections.
The ministry admitted yesterday during a legislative interpellation session that despite the official launching of Taichung's Chingchuankang International Airport on March 5, the airport would not be able to meet the requirements of a standard international airport until 2008.
In response to questions by People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞), Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) admitted that another runway would have to be constructed before the airport could service scheduled international flights. The airport will only be able to service chartered international flights when it is launched in March.
In addition, Civil Aeronautics Administration Director General Billy Chang (
Chang also said that while the domestic runway could not accommodate larger aircraft, the military runway at the Chingchuankang airport could be used for larger aircrafts for the time being.
"Even after the first chartered flights on March 5, the airport will continue to service chartered flights when necessary," said Chang, in response to accusations that the upcoming chartered flights were merely a political performance.
Lin also said that scheduled domestic flights leaving from the Taichung airport would begin on March 6.
"You do not even know for sure that the flights departing on March 5 will be able to return," Lee said.
Of the three flights slated to be the airport's first departures, the China Airlines flight to Tokyo will return via the Chiang Kai-shek In-ternational Airport. The return itineraries of the other two flights, Far Eastern Air Transport flights to Thailand and Palau, have yet to be determined.
Meanwhile, the ministry yesterday revealed that it would be prepared to transport up to 200,000 China-based Taiwanese businessmen in the three days leading up to the presidential elections and referendum.
Lin said that it was unlikely that all of the businessmen would make the trip to Taiwan in the same time period.
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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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