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Direct flights a boost for Beijing's image: analysts

Beijing's agreement to expand cross-strait direct cargo and passenger flights in the face of the current political unrest in Taiwan was part of China's soft tactics to win the support of the Taiwanese public, analysts said yesterday.

Chang Wu-yueh (張五岳), a professor at the Institute of China Research of Tamkang University, said in a telephone interview with the Taipei Times that the expansion of cross-strait direct charter flights is "consistent with the Chinese national strategy to cultivate the support of the Taiwanese for unification with China."

Beijing and Taipei made simultaneous announcements on Wed-nesday to allow more direct cross-strait flights. However, the actual benefits resulting from the increase in flight services would be minimal, if not insignificant, Chang said.

The cargo charter flight will allow China-based Taiwanese companies to ship their equipment, machinery and components between Taiwan and their factories in China. But the finished products cannot be shipped back to Taiwan using the same direct route.

Chang said it has always been Taiwan's goal to normalize direct cargo charter flights to allow not only equipment but also goods to be shipped back to Taiwan, but China has been reluctant to grant Taiwan permission for fear that its fledgling cargo-shipping capacity will be overtaken by its strong Taiwanese counterpart.

On the other hand, China favors more passenger charter flights to allow its citizens to go to Taiwan. However, to date, it has yet to finalize measures to allow the Chinese public to travel to Taiwan.

Given the minimal benefits from increased direct charter flights, Chang said it's hard to say that Beijing had given the Democratic Progressive Party government a favor by further liberalizing cross-strait economic exchanges.

"The announcement, coming amid the political upheaval surrounding President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), could give the impression that Beijing continues to demonstrate its good will toward the Taiwanese people," the professor said.

It also had the effect of preventing the DPP government from drifting toward independence, as well as letting the DPP know that Beijing does not rule out the possibility of interacting with the DPP government, Chang said.

Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), an associate professor of political science at Soochow University, said that although the actual benefits of the increased direct cross-strait charter flights would be minimal, it was a successful diplomacy campaign as it greatly boosted Beijing's image.

The decision to expand cross-strait direct cargo and passenger charter flights was made by Taiwanese and Chinese negotiators in Macau on May 24, a high-ranking government source revealed recently.

Taipei initially planned to announce the measures on June 1, but China disagreed, saying it had not yet completed its internal procedural review. It was not until June 13 that Beijing informed Taipei that it was ready. Both governments made simultaneous announcements the next day.

Lo said that Taiwan was often wrongly blamed for the slow progress of cross-strait negotiations.

"The Chinese are being very pragmatic in allowing only exchanges that are beneficial to themselves. China's unwillingness to allow the shipment of finished products back to Taiwan using the direct cargo flights is one good example," Lo said.

Commenting on the so-called "Macau model" as a negotiating format in lieu of an official channel to conduct bilateral negotiations, Lo said that this model, in which private agencies serving as proxies authorized by two governments for the negotiations, is a good start for future interactions between the two sides.

The Macau model was first used for the 2003 Lunar New Year direct passenger charter flights for Taiwanese businessmen in China. Since then, it has continued to serve as a negotiating platform for the same charter flights until this year.
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