The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it would request that Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) deliver a special briefing to the legislature’s Transportation Committee tomorrow to explain how the Ministry of Transportation and Communications plans to handle the fallout from the decision to dissolve TransAsia Airways.
The airline’s decision to suspend flights for one day has inconvenienced and incurred losses for its customers, KMT caucus secretary-general Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Chiang questioned whether the government has a full grasp on the gravity of situation and if the ministry or the Civil Aeronautics Administration had received prior notice about the problems facing the airline.
Photo: CNA
“The committee is scheduled to review a budget plan proposed by Taiwan International Port Corp and the appropriation of port construction funds on Thursday [tomorrow],” he said. “We have asked the committee’s convener, KMT Legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生), to change the meeting’s agenda and invite the minister to deliver a special briefing on the TransAsia case.”
The airline has tried to pass responsibility to travel agencies and continues to sell tickets online, KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said, adding that it failed to give a 60-day notice required before a massive layoff.
Reports of the company’s financial problems had circulated in the airline industry for about six months, but the government appears to have been out of the loop, KMT Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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