Beijing yesterday strongly criticized Taipei's "abnormal'' and
"inappropriate'' way of unilaterally publishing a programme for
indirect charter cargo flights between Taiwan and the mainland.
While hinting refusal to the Taiwanese proposal, the mainland
pressed for two-way and mutually beneficial air links across the
Taiwan Straits.
Without any advance discussion with the mainland, the island
drafted and announced a proposal for Taiwanese airlines to operate
regular charter cargo flights across the Straits, starting
today.
At present, only Taiwanese carriers are allowed to take part in
the scheme and all aircraft will make stopovers in Hong Kong or
Macao.
Pu Zhaozhou, director of the Office of Taiwan, Hong Kong and
Macao Affairs under the General
Administration of Civil Aviation of China, expressed strong
displeasure with the Taiwanese proposal.
"We think it is an extremely abnormal and inappropriate approach
for the Taiwanese side to make such an unilateral announcement
without any non-governmental negotiations, and we cannot accept the
way they handled the matter,'' he told reporters yesterday.
The official signalled the apparent rejection of the Taiwanese
plan at a regular press conference by the Taiwan Affairs Office of
the State Council.
Pu insisted that cross-Straits flights be treated as domestic
affairs within one country in line with the principle of being
direct, two-way, reciprocal and mutually beneficial.
"Only on that basis will the mainland welcome non-governmental
aviation groups from Taiwan to discuss cross-Straits air links so
that they can be put into place at an early date,'' he said.
Pu said the mainland has held out for direct cross-Straits air
links with no stopovers in order to save time and money.
Meanwhile, the mainland airlines should be allowed to
participate in charter cargo flights across the Taiwan Straits in
accordance with aviation practice and the common business principle
of fairness and equity, according to the official.
Li Weiyi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office, also accused
Taiwan authorities of setting political hurdles to the
establishment of cross-Straits direct transport links, which has
been barred by Taipei for decades.
He added that Beijing firmly opposes any Taiwanese attempt to
describe across-Straits air and sea links as international routes,
as defined by a recent Taiwanese government report.
At the press briefing, the spokesman also announced that
Zhejiang Guoxiang Refrigeration Co Ltd has been approved as the
first Taiwanese-funded enterprise to launch its initial public
offering (IPO) on the Shanghai A-share market. In a related
development, the Ministry of Public Security unveiled a plan to
issue visas to facilitate travel for thousands of Taiwanese
business people living in Shanghai.
As well, mainland agricultural scientists are inviting their
Taiwanese counterparts to send crop seeds from the island into
space aboard the mainland's Shenzhou V spacecraft, expected to be
launched later this year.
(China Daily September 25, 2003)