Consulting members of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) reached a consensus yesterday that direct links with China should be carried out in an incremental way so that "sea transportation comes before air transportation, cargo before passengers."
They also suggested that the links should begin with certain ports before full liberalization, said Jan Jyh-horng (
The MAC yesterday called a consulting meeting on the issue of direct links with China. The conclusion of the meeting is not binding.
Jan also said that although the members' opinions differed over various aspects of the issue, they all agreed that the links should be carried out incrementally.
"The members suggested that we should carry out the matter step-by-step in order to gain some experience [before full adoption]," Jan said.
In addition, according to Jan, some members suggested that Taiwan should adopt a term, such as "cross-strait" or "Taiwan-Mainland" instead of "domestic" or "international," to define the route between Taiwan and China."
As China has long insisted that transportation between Taiwan and China is "domestic," the problem of the definition of the route has failed to be resolved over the past decade.
"Since it is impossible for China to change it's `one China' stance, Taiwan may change its tactics to adopt a vaguer term to define the route," Jan said.
According to Jan, during the meeting, various political disputes and technical problems concerning cross-strait issues were touched upon, including mutual recognition of identification documents of related personnel serving on the ships and flights of both sides, a balance in transportation, ticket prices and taxes and customs examinations and conflicts that arise out of the interpretation of related laws in Taiwan and China.
Regarding the complexity of the political disputes and technical problems across the Strait, the members suggested that negotiations should be proceeded by a team of experts from different fields instead of individuals, private groups or organizations.
Some members suggested that the Taiwan-Hong Kong aviation pact talks could be a reference for future talks on direct links with China.
In terms of the timing of the initiation of talks, a few of the members suggested starting them within one or two years, saying that the earlier the talk, the more Taiwan can benefit, while others had reservations on the issue.
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