Academics urged the government to take countermeasures against Chinese airlines, as the deadline for China’s request that 44 foreign airlines list Taiwan as a Chinese territory is on Wednesday.
Thirty-eight airlines have reportedly already made the changes.
Six airlines are still applying for an extension, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Friday.
As of press time yesterday evening, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines have kept Taiwan and China as separate listings on their Web sites, while Korean Air and Asiana Airlines refer to destinations by their cities and airports.
Chris Huang (黃居正), a professor at National Tsing Hua University’s Institute of Law for Science and Technology, has suggested that the government assess Chinese airlines’ slot times — which give airlines the right to operate at an airport at particular times.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration should decide at which point it would draw the line, Huang said, adding: “If it continues to let China’s actions go unchecked, it will suffer more in the future.”
China is familiar with the workings of the International Civil Aviation Organization, and knows that airlines are important representations of sovereignty and national power, Huang said.
Huang said he believes that Beijing has been planning to put pressure on foreign airlines for a long time and will continue to do so, especially now that the majority of international airports are free markets, and China is the main taxpayer at many airports, he said.
China’s next target might be travel documents or labels at international airports and on their Web sites, he added.
Lin Wen-cheng (林文程), a professor at National Sun Yat-sen University’s Institute of China and Asia-Pacific Studies, said that the government should use cross-strait flight routes as a bargaining chip to warn China that it cannot continue to act as it pleases, he said.
China’s intervention has damaged the hearts and minds of Taiwanese, Lin said, adding that it contradicts the claim that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) made at his meeting with former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) that he wants to win the hearts and minds of Taiwanese.
The government needs to guard against China potentially forcing other countries to cancel visa-free entry for Taiwanese, and must take concrete action to ensure that the international community is aware of its stance, he said.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A series of discussions on the legacy of martial law and authoritarianism are to be held at the Taipei International Book Exhibition this month, featuring findings and analysis by the Transitional Justice Commission. The commission and publisher Book Republic organized the series, entitled “Escaping the Nation’s Labyrinth of Memory: What Authoritarian Symbols and Records Can Tell Us,” to help people navigate narratives through textual analysis and comparisons with other nations. The four-day series is to begin on Thursday next week with a discussion between commission Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠), Polish-language translator Lin Wei-yun (林蔚昀), and Polish author and artist Pawel Gorecki comparing
MOVING OUT: A former professor said that rent and early education costs in Taipei are the nation’s highest, which makes it difficult for young people to start families The population of Taipei last year fell to the lowest in 23 years due to high rent, more transportation options and the expansion of northern cities into a single metropolis, academics and city officials said on Monday. Data released this month by the Ministry of the Interior showed that the capital was home to 2,602,418 people last year, down 42,623 from 2019. The decline is second only to 1993, when the population fell by 42,828 people, while Taipei’s population was the lowest it has been since 1997. Taipei saw the biggest drop among the six special municipalities, while Taoyuan led the group in
A legislator yesterday called for authorities to investigate the sale of Chinese-made, Internet-connected karaoke machines containing “propaganda songs.” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said she was approached by a person who had discovered Chinese patriotic songs such as My Motherland (我的祖國) — which is commonly referred to as China’s “second national anthem” — in Chinese-made karaoke devices sold in Taiwan. The machines are popular, as they can connect to the Internet, providing access to thousands of songs, she said. One retailer, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the machines first entered the local market about three years ago, starting with
RSS