A recent government announcement that Greater Tainan will be added to the list of cities offering direct flights to China led to an angry exchange of words yesterday between President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign aides and Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德).
Lai said the introduction of direct flights should not be politicized and that Ma’s campaign aides had “gone overboard” by accusing him of flip-flopping on the issue.
Lai was responding to Ma campaign office spokesman Yin Wei’s (殷瑋) accusation that Lai has wavered on the issue — one minute calling it a “trojan horse” offered by China and the next saying he would cooperate with the central government to pursue the policy.
Lai said yesterday that the introduction of direct flights between Tainan Airport and China was an issue of livelihood for Tainan residents and not a political issue.
He said that without regular flights linking Tainan and major Chinese cities, no benefits would be brought to his city.
“I was just reflecting local opinion when I asked the central government to increase the number of direct flights between Tainan and China,” Lai said.
However, Yin said that last year, Lai had actually been hoping to move the city’s airport, but now he is asking the central government to allow regular flights from the airport.
“Isn’t he politicizing the issue at the expense of local public opinion?” Yin asked.
Lee Chia-fei (李佳霏), a spokeswoman for the president’s campaign office, said that if Lai wanted regular direct flights to China from Tainan Airport, he should work hard to attract visitors to his city.
“At the very least, he could learn from Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬), all of whom have visited China to promote their cities or counties,” Lee said.
In response, Lai said even if Ma’s officials do not like what he said, “the response should have come from the Executive Yuan, not Ma’s campaign office.”
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