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Taichung's mayor accuses MAC of violating `neutrality'

Taichung's mayor yesterday criticized the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), saying it had used an announcement of new charter flight services between Taichung and Hong Kong to help Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates running in local government elections.

On Tuesday, Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), announced during an inspection of Taichung's Chingchuankang (清泉崗) Airport that the government had approved Hong Kong Express Airline's application to operate charter flight services between Hong Kong and Taichung.

After the announcement, Wu spoke to local businesspeople in the airport about the policy. Joining the event were Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) and Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), who will run for Taichung County commissioner and Taiching City mayor, respectively, in local government elections in December. The two hailed the policy.

Yesterday, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) criticized the MAC, saying it had violated the principle of administrative neutrality, but said he supported the policy.

"I would like to see the government approve direct flights between Taichung and Hong Kong, but it should not use this policy as a kind of campaign instrument, providing an opportunity for specific candidates to promote themselves," Hu said.

Hu made the remarks while attending the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Central Standing Committee meeting. He said the KMT will have to do something to prevent this type of incident from happening again in other places as the year-end elections are quickly approaching.

Responding to Hu's comment, Wu said in a press release that the goal of his inspection of the airport was to make sure its facilities were sufficient to undertake the new route between Taichung and Hong Kong.

"After finding that everything was okay, I then made the policy announcement in the airport. As for why there were some candidates attending the forum after the inspection, I had no prior knowledge about this. The forum was arranged by DPP legislator Tsai Chi-Chang (蔡其昌) and the candidates were invited by him," Wu said.

Panda petition

In other developments, the KMT yesterday issued a petition signed by Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Hu protesting the MAC's earlier rejection of an application filed by the Taichung City Government to attend a forum in China on pandas.

China earlier this year offered a pair of pandas as a gift to Taiwan. Hu has said Taichung would like to house the animals, if they come to Taiwan.

In the petition, the KMT strongly condemned the MAC for preventing the director of the city's animal health inspection and quarantine institute, Wu Lung-tai (吳龍泰), from accompanying a delegation to China to attend a forum on the animals.

The petition also asked the government not to politicize the panda issue.

Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
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