Reacting to Premier Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) proposal to lift the ban on local airlines flying over Chinese air space and to allow passenger and cargo direct charter flights, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) said his party had discussed those issues with China "long ago" and "it was all set."
Lien made the remarks yesterday at KMT headquarters after he accepted a painting from a China-based artist. However, he did not elaborate further.
KMT spokesman Chang Jung-kung (
Chang said the KMT fears that Hsieh's announcement was simply a bid to divert public attention from fruit exports, since the government has been condemned for blocking them.
"In fact, the deadlock in cross-strait trade should be attributed to the government's inefficiency and impotence," Chang said.
"Although the proposals are a focus-shifting tactic, the KMT still approves of the government's direction since it is following in Lien's steps," Chang said.
"But we hope the government will be able to make good on its promise," he said.
Chang said that China had proposed initiating a non-stop cross-strait flight around the Dragon Boat Festival [mid-June] but the government had insisted that only cargo charter flights were allowed. Consequently negotiations over the terms of charter flights were frozen.
"At the time Lien suggested cargo charters and passenger charters should be a single package for negotiations and China responded positively to his suggestion the next day," Chang said.
"It was regretful that the government did not take advantage of China's goodwill earlier," he said.
He noted that with Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, the government should do something to enable Taiwanese businesspeople in China to return home for the holiday directly, rather than having to make transfers in a third country.
"The government should not only insist on direct cargo charters. We think it should go with passenger charter flights, which would be a good policy that would make everyone happy," Chang said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
RSS