The government yesterday issued an initial certification of authorization to a private agency to arrange talks with representatives of China on passenger and cargo charter flights across the Taiwan Strait, You Ying-lung (游盈隆), a vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said.
"This move means that the government is willing to start talks," the MAC said, noting that if the proposal was accepted by the Chinese side, the MAC would issue a formal certificate enabling talks to start.
The agency commissioned by the government is the Taipei Airlines Association (TAA) which also represented the government in bilateral negotiations with China earlier this year to arrange cross-strait charter flights for the Lunar New Year holiday.
The certificate was issued nine days after Premier Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) announcement on Aug. 3 that the government had agreed to hold simultaneous negotiations with China concerning the opening of both cargo and passenger charter flights.
The issue of cargo charter flights has long been of concern to the Taiwanese business sector as it could help them save on transportation costs and time and thus enhance competitiveness. China, however, has only been willing to negotiate passenger charter flights.
While the government maintains that it still wants cargo charters to begin first, Hsieh's announcement was seen as a compromise aimed at resuming talks.
China has already responded positively to Hsieh's remarks, with the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council saying that: "We have taken note of the remarks of officials with the Taiwan authorities regarding cross-strait passenger and cargo charter flights and we welcome such remarks."
You said that informal contact between both sides of the Taiwan Strait had been underway since Hsieh's announcement, but he refused to reveal more details.
"That we decided to issue the certificate of authorization today means that things have matured," You said.
As for whether the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday might see the opening of passenger charter flights for Taiwanese businesspeople working in China to return to Taiwan for family reunions, You said that he wouldn't rule out the possibility, if the negotiations were going well.
On Thursday, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) claimed that China's proposal to talk with Taiwan on the start of direct passenger flights was a political trick.
In a meeting with 2004 Nobel laureate in economics Edward Prescott, Chen said that his administration wanted to separate economic issues from political issues in its dealings with China but that this was difficult because China politicized virtually everything.
Citing the stymied negotiations on direct charter flights as an example, Chen said Taiwan prefers to start with cargo flights not only because it is urgently needed by both sides, but also because Taiwan was wary of the impact passenger flights might have on national security.
Instead of accommodating Taiwan's security concerns, Chen said, China insisted on talks on passenger flights first. Chen said the reason for this was that that passenger flights would generate more publicity than cargo flights and therefore would be more valuable for what he called China's "charm offensive" against Taiwan.
China Civil Aviation Association Executive Director Pu Zhaozhou (
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