Beijing is providing discount airfares to encourage Taiwanese businesspeople in China to return to Taiwan to vote in a clear effort to meddle in the nation’s election, Economic Democracy Union researchers said on Thursday.
Information from notices circulated in China show that Taiwanese businesspeople can purchase discount tickets from 10 Chinese airlines for the dates before Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 13 next year, union researcher Hsu Kuan-tze (許冠澤) told a news conference in Taipei.
The discount can also be combined into a package for another trip to Taiwan for the Lunar New Year holiday, Hsu said, adding that the offer is a financial incentive to pressure voters into casting ballots for pro-China candidates.
Photo: Reuters
He showed documents of the notices issued by the Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises on the Mainland (ATIEM), the highest-level body representing Taiwanese companies and businesspeople in China.
ATIEM is headquartered in Beijing and is supervised by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which is administered by the nation’s state council.
In the notice, ATIEM used the expression “Taiwan compatriots,” adopting the way the Chinese government addresses Taiwanese in China, Hsu said.
It also promised that discount flights would soon be available from Taiwan’s two main carriers, China Airlines and EVA Airways, he added.
ATIEM officials in the release said that they had held negotiations with the two carriers and would in the coming days present “beneficial airfare prices” for trips to Taiwan for the January election and Lunar New Year, Hsu said, adding that the discount constitutes unfair competition and is illegal.
The move violates the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法), union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.
“We demand that China Airlines and EVA Air not become China’s political tools to interfere in our democratic election,” he said. “These two carriers must not follow the discounts by Chinese companies, as all of them are targeting Taiwanese consumers. They must abide by the Fair Trade Act and must not engage in price collusion to derive an unfair advantage.”
The ATIEM notice states that the 10 Chinese companies offering discount prices for “Taiwan compatriots” include Air China, China Eastern, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shenzhen Air, Shandong Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Sichuan Air, Spring Airlines and Juneyao Airlines.
One discount offered for a return journey from a major city in China to Taiwan was priced at NT$8,860 and another one was NT$5,270, and it is price collusion to provide such extraordinarily low prices, Lai said.
Lai, saying such low prices as incentives could be considered as vote-buying, requested that the Fair Trade Commission investigate and fine the 10 Chinese airlines with offices in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members gave their support for the discount programs, saying that Taiwanese businesspeople are returning home to see loved ones, not just to cast a ballot.
KMT Legislator Hsieh Yi-fong (謝衣?) yesterday said that most Taiwanese businesspeople return home at that time of year for personal reasons.
“You also cannot be certain, which political party they might support when casting their ballots,” therefore civic groups should not turn discount airfares into a political issue, Hsieh said.
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