MAC chairman asks pan-blues not to pass direct links bill

Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday urged the pan-blue camp not to go against public opinion and abandon the country's sovereignty by depriving the government of the authority to issue permits for direct cross-strait flights.

Wu urged the pan-blue camp not to force through the proposed amendments to the 28th, 29th and 30th clauses of the Statute Governing the Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例), which would lift all the restrictions on cross-strait transportation three months after the amendments are passed.

"Under growing public pressure, the pan-blues should realize that they can't go against public opinion and forcibly pass a bill that yields [Taiwan's] sovereignty to China," Wu said yesterday at a cross-strait seminar held at National Taiwan University.

The direct links amendments failed to pass on Friday after pan-green legislators blocked the legislative floor to prevent further deliberations on the bill. The bill is scheduled for another review on Tuesday.

During Friday's negotiations, government officials had proposed retaining the government's authority in issuing permits for ships and aircrafts allowed to travel to China.

The pan-blues, however, insisted on scrapping the "permit system" and demanded that two-way cross-strait transport begin three months after the amendments are passed.

Wu said yesterday if the "permit system" authorized by the government was scrapped, it would incapacitate the government and leave it unable to conduct any further negotiations with China.