While airline representatives confirmed that they had been officially authorized to handle cross-strait charter flights for the upcoming Lunar New Year, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday maintained silence on the matter, saying only that "contact had been made."
With the Lunar New Year around the corner, it remains an open question whether cross-strait charter flights will materialize to accommodate the estimated 500,000 Taiwanese businesspeople returning home for the holidays.
MAC Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san (
"The two sides have already begun to communicate on the matter," he said yesterday.
However, Chiu refused to confirm whether the government had formally authorized the Taipei Airlines Association to represent the government in possible negotiations with China over the charter flights. The council stated last month that it would authorize the association to engage in talks as soon as "China's stance becomes clear."
"Is it really important whether we've authorized the association? That's not the main point here," Chiu said.
While the MAC has sought to keep a low profile on the matter, the association yesterday told the media that it had been delegated by the government to engage in negotiations, but refrained from saying when such talks would take place or with whom they would meet.
"We are bound to confidentiality by our agreement with the government," association Secretary-General Solo Su (
Su denied the veracity of an article by the local Chinese-language newspaper the China Times that said Su and association Chairman Michael Lo (樂大信) had left for Beijing yesterday to negotiate the details of cross-strait charter flights.
"I'm still in Taipei, right?" Su said yesterday.
The China Daily had reported that the Beijing representative offices of several local carriers had been expecting to meet with Lo yesterday.
With the Lunar New Year less than five weeks off, Su said that time was of the essence.
"There will indeed be a lot of pressure on the airline carriers, and they're worried about whether there will be market demand for the charter flights as the holiday approaches," he said.
However, Su said that as long as both sides were willing to cooperate, the matter could be resolved quickly.
While cross-strait flights took place in February 2003, the prospects for this year looked bleak until Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) put the issue back on the table on Monday.
Whether cross-strait talks will be held and whether flights will be direct and reciprocal has yet to be determined, but observers have said the flights are an indicator of the direction cross-strait exchanges might take in the future, as well as being a possible forerunner to the "three links" with China.
Meanwhile, in their efforts to facilitate cross-strait charter flights for Taiwanese working in China, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday that it is preparing to send a small delegation to Beijing on Sunday to talk to Chinese authorities.
The delegation hopes to facilitate reciprocal direct charter flights with no stopovers from Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzu.
Given its preliminary contacts with the MAC and the Chinese authorities, KMT Legislator and Central Policy Committee executive director Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said yesterday that the KMT has high hopes that at least two of its objectives will be achieved.
"We think it is very possible that we will be able to have flights with no stopovers and from multiple locations. It's probably too late, however, to arrange [the technical details for] two-sided flights, since that touches upon cross-strait issues" Tseng told the Taipei Times yesterday.
The delegation plans to leave for Beijing on Jan. 9 and is slated to return the following day.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS