Pleasure boats flying Chinese flags

Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) pleasure boats are being decorated with Chinese national flags to please customers from China, according to a local media report.

The Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) said in a Thursday report that more and more Taiwanese visitors to the lake are taking offense at the flags, prompting the Sun Moon Lake National Scenery Bureau to respond by stating that flying Chinese flags on Sun Moon Lake boats was "inappropriate."

The local pleasure boat union stated that the yacht company that has been hanging Chinese flags on their vessels -- the Noah Ship Group -- is not a member of the union, as union members' contracts prevent them from doing so, the report said.

Boat owner Jie Jhi-tong (解智同), admitted to displaying Chinese flags on the pleasure boats he operates on Sun Moon Lake, but said that he had done so merely as a gesture of goodwill for Chinese tourists. He also said that even bigger Taiwanese flags fly from the back of his boats, but that he would take down the Chinese flags, the report said.

According to the report, Jie commented that Chinese customers often asked him if he was "afraid" of displaying Chinese flags on his boats. According to Jie, Chinese tourists were quick to mention that if they were to openly hang the Taiwanese flag in China, there would definitely be "trouble." Jie said that he responded to such questions by pointing out that Taiwan was a free country, the report stated.

The Sun Moon Lake National Scenery Bureau and the Mainland Affairs Council both confirmed that Taiwanese were within their rights to hang Chinese flags on their property, including on their yachts, and that the problem was not a legal one, according to the report.