The low-profile arrival of two officials from China's Taiwan Affairs Office yesterday coincided with speculations that a recent trip to China by the head of the nation's largest carrier, China Airlines (CAL) chairman Chiang Yao-chung (江耀宗), might be tied to the closely watched direct cross-strait flights for the Lunar New Year.
Li Xiaoyun (李小云), director of the Cross-Strait Economic and Technological Exchange Center under China's Taiwan Affairs Office, and Feng Chuozhe (馮卓志), president of Beijing's state-run Cross-Strait Travel Service, were greeted by an anonymous official upon their arrival at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport.
It is believed that Li and Feng are visiting Taiwan to discuss issues regarding the opening of direct charter flights for the Lunar New Year holidays and tourism policies. Li and Feng, however, said they were invited to make a sightseeing trip.
"We will travel around the island for sightseeing," Li said, adding that he and Feng received the invitation a long time ago but had postponed the trip until now for various reasons. This is Li's first trip to Taiwan, while Feng has visited on several previous occasions. Meanwhile, China Airlines (CAL) yesterday confirmed that its chairman, Chiang Yao-chung (江耀宗), was currently in China on a business trip but denied speculations that the trip had anything to do with the closely watched cross-strait chartered flights for the upcoming Lunar New Year.
CAL spokesman Roger Han (韓梁中) said that Chiang was slated to visit companies in the area but that the trip was strictly business.
"The trip is only for business purposes.Media reports [linking the trip to cross-strait chartered flights] are wrong and merely speculating," Han said.
According to the Chinese-language daily China Times, Chiang had formally reported the trip to the Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) ahead of time but had not been asked to carry out any tasks on behalf of the government. According to the report, Chiang departed for China last Sunday and plans to stay for about a week.
News of Chiang's trip to China follows an abrupt halt on the carrier's privatization plans just last week. Lin announced last Tuesday that the government was to remain the airline's largest shareholder, while Premier Yu Shyi-kun had indicated that the carrier was needed to service diplomatic missions when necessary.
Lending further support to speculations of Chiang's involvement in efforts to establish cross-strait flights and direct links with China is his concurrent position as a chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), a semi-official organization that oversees and conducts cross-strait exchanges in lieu of the government. He is generally believed to align politically with the pan-green camp.
Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san (
"Basically, if Chiang discusses cross-strait flights in China, it is without the council's authorization," Chiu said.
"The likelihood that talks with China about cross-strait chartered flights will be conducted by China Air is small. China Air is a business representative -- what would EVA Air or other carriers think?" Chiu said.
Whether cross-strait chartered flights are a viable option for the next Lunar New Year, during which the government estimates 100,000 Taiwanese businesspeople and their families will return home for the holiday, remains uncertain. While cross-strait flights during the Lunar New Year have occurred in the last two years, the flights had to make stopovers in Hong Kong and Macau and the routes could be serviced by Taiwanese airlines only.
Council Chairman Joseph Wu (
The council first proposed discussions for next year's Lunar New Year flights in September and announced a willingness to discuss the possibility of direct flights in both directions and serviced by both Taiwanese and Chinese carriers. However, the Taiwan Affairs Office has thus far refused official negotiations and insisted that cross-strait flights be viewed as domestic routes.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS