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Premier expresses reservations about cross-strait flights

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said yesterday that he had reservations about whether the nation would be able to open cross-strait charter flights around election time to help Taiwanese living in China return home to vote.

"The proposed charter flight plan should go through a thorough evaluation by the Mainland Affairs Council first," Chang said while fielding questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) during a legislative question-and-answer session.

"It is also inappropriate to make our standpoint clear before China does so in cross-strait negotiations," he said.

The KMT lawmaker said Chang should fight for the implementation of the charter flights, because people living in China were depending on the government to help them exercise their referendum rights.

Tsai also questioned why the premier could not endorse such a plan immediately, given that Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) had expressed his support for direct cross-strait links.

Hsieh has said that the links should be developed by expanding the scope of current holiday charter flights.

Chang said that Hsieh, as a presidential candidate, was supposed to propose campaign platforms regarding cross-strait policies, while the premier could not propose such policies during the legislative session.
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