Taiwan should tread carefully in flight talks

With the scope of the cross-strait Lunar New Year charter flights getting broader year by year, the debate surrounding direct air links between Taiwan and China has again become the subject of much debate.

While some consider the annual charter flights for family reunions during the holidays as a good basis for normalizing cross-strait relations, some experts are concerned that Taiwan will lose important bargaining chips in the negotiations on direct cross-strait air links.

Since the first Lunar New Year charter flights in 2003, the original agreement has been extended significantly for both this year and next year's schedules.

Reviewing the progress made over the last three years, Tung Chen-yuan (童振源), an assistant professor at the Sun Yat-sen Graduate Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities of Chengchi University, lauded the success as creating a pragmatic model for future negotiations.

"The negotiations on Lunar New Year charter flights have established an important model which both sides of the Strait can use when negotiating other issues in the future," he said.

"Under the model, the governments of both sides will gradually realize that putting aside political differences and seeking consensus on issues and people's interests are realistic ways in which many other cross-strait problems can also be solved," he added.

With the increasing numbers of Taiwanese people living in China and the extent of economic integration between the two sides becoming ever deeper, the opening of direct air links has been pushed for by the business community, which says it will enhance the competitiveness of all Taiwanese businesses.

The president of a China-based Taiwanese business association, who wished to remain anonymous, said that he felt unenthusiastic about the annual charter flights.

"I don't deny the convenience of shorter traveling times when returning home for family reunions, but what we really need are normalized air links that can reduce transportation costs and enhance logistics capabilities for our firms," he said.

He cited the government report that reviewed the implementation of this year's Lunar New Year charter flights as saying that actually many Taiwanese businesspeople are not very fond of these `ceremonial services.'

"The average occupancy rate was only about 50 percent and thus the airlines didn't make a great profit, which was why the government has decided on a more comprehensive program for the Lunar New Year charter flights next year," he said, noting that he didn't think the extensions are an indication that direct air links will start soon.

Alexander Huang (黃介正), director of the Graduate Institute of American Studies at Tamkang University, however, struck a more positive note when considering the implications of the extensions.

"After Lunar New Year charter flights become normalized, it is not unreasonable to expect that regular cross-strait charter flights for passengers and cargo will eventually become a reality," Huang said.

The issues of cargo and passenger charter flights have already been negotiated under the table, but both have failed to reach any conclusions because of disagreements about the arrangements.

Huang said that the government has to be cautious when conducting the negotiations on passenger charter flights, as it might lead Taiwan to lose bargaining chips.