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Talks on charter flights to start Saturday
(Xinhua/China Daily)
Updated: 2005-01-14 16:19 The Chinese mainland and Taiwan will hold talks
Saturday in Macao about technical and business issues on opening Spring Festival
charter flights across the Taiwan Straits, according to the Mainland sources.
At the invitation of Pu Zhaozhou, vice chairman of the board of directors of
the mainland-based straits aviation exchange commission, a four-member
delegation from an air transport association in Taipei will attend the meeting.
The Mainland delegation, which also comprises four members, is scheduled to
arrive in Macao Friday afternoon.
Call for official talks on charter flights rejected
Beijing Wednesday rejected Taipei's call for official talks on details of
direct cross-Straits charter flights for the upcoming Spring Festival.
He Shizhong, director of the Economic Bureau with the Taiwan Affairs Office
of the State Council, said the involvement of mainland and Taiwanese airlines
and airline associations should be sufficient.
"I can say in a clear and responsible manner that members of the Taiwan
Affairs Office and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits will
not attend the talks," he told a routine news conference.
(From left to right)Li Weiyi, spokesman for the
Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, He Shizhong, chief of the
Department of Economy under the office and Pu Zhaozhou, a senior
official with the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China attend
a news conference on cross-Straits charter flights in Beijing January 12,
2005. [newsphoto] | So it would be
"inappropriate, impractical and a demonstration of insincerity" for Taipei to
expect its officials to take part in the negotiations.
The senior official made the comments in response to Taipei's demands for
government talks to pave the way for the participation of mainland carriers in
direct charter flights for the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on February 9
this year.
The island wants members of its "mainland affairs council" and semi-official
Straits Exchange Foundation to act as advisers for Taiwanese negotiators.
Beijing, however, has refused any contact with the pro-independence
Democratic Progressive Party administration headed by Taiwan leader Chen
Shui-bian.
He said this year's direct charter flight programme can be handled as a
special arrangement, which does not have to involve an official aviation
agreement.
Letting airline associations across the Straits work out technical and
business details is the "most convenient, practical and feasible" model for
negotiations, he stressed.
Meanwhile, excluding government officials from the talks can help avoid
unnecessary political interference and facilitate a smooth discussion between
airline associations from both sides.
"It is out of question to get prepared for realizing direct charter flights
in time for the this year's Spring Festival as long as the Taiwan authorities
show sincerity on the issue," said the official.
Pu Zhaozhou, executive director of the China Civil Aviation Association, told
reporters that Beijing hopes to see the implementation of non-stop and
round-trip charter flights by carriers from both sides this year.
To benefit hundreds of thousands of mainland-based Taiwanese business people
who return to the island for family reunions, the mainland has agreed to expand
flight destinations from Shanghai to more cities including Beijing, Guangzhou
and Xiamen.
During the 2003 Spring Festival, only six Taiwanese airlines were allowed to
operate indirect charter flights between Taipei, Kaohsiung and Shanghai, but
with an inconvenient and illogical stopover in Hong Kong or Macao.
In 2004, the practice was grounded due to Taipei's insistence on the
exclusion of mainland airlines from the cross-Straits charter flights.
If mainland airlines are allowed to run charter flights to Taiwan this year,
it would be the first time for mainland commercial airplanes to land on the
island since 1949.
Taipei has imposed a ban on shipping and air links with the mainland for more
than five decades.
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