President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has given "concrete instructions" making chartered cross-strait cargo flights a priority, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
"I can assure you that President Chen has given us concrete instructions to continue with efforts towards bringing about chartered cargo flights ... and that these instructions move in a good direction," MAC Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said without elaborating yesterday.
Chiu refused to disclose the details of Chen's instructions, saying only that Chen's recent vow -- made on Wednesday -- to push for direct cross-strait cargo flights was more than just talk.
Chiu did disclose yesterday that Premier Frank Hsieh (
Since the launch of direct cross-strait charter flights exclusively servicing taishang -- Taiwanese businesspeople based in China -- during the Lunar New Year, the business community and authorities have sought to build on the precedent and establish cargo flights under a similar agreement.
Chiu said yesterday that, with just three flights left, a total of 9,889 taishang had taken advantage of the direct flights during the holiday.
Taiwan Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Ken Hsu (
"All of this money is going to Hong Kong and Macau," Hsu said, pressing the government to pick up the pace on relaxing restrictions on passenger and freight transit across the Strait.
"The government is prepared to take action on this, and we hope that China will do the same," Chiu said yesterday. Reports in the local media have indicated that China is likely to respond positively to Taiwan's proposal.
Chiu did point, however, to the difficulties that cargo flights could pose, indicating that direct cargo flights would inevitably draw a reaction from the marine cargo shipping sector.
TransAsia Airways Chairman Tony Fan (
Fan, who is tapped to take over as chairman of the Taipei Airlines Association, the organization the government authorized to negotiate with Beijing on the New Year flights, said that cargo shipping would involve various concerns previously untouched.
"We would have to handle products restricted in certain areas and conflicts that might arise with the shipper. And handling these situations poorly could reflect negatively on Taiwan's international image," Fan said, indicating that the operation of cargo flights could open a Pandora's box of difficulties hitherto unforeseen.
Chang Wu-ueh (
Also see story:
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods