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Taiwan gov't against China flights
from TSA
TAIPEI
- Despite a government plan to open Taiwan up to
Chinese tourists, Taipei's Sung Shan Airport (TSA)
is not suitable for serving direct flights between
Taiwan and China at present, a government official
said June 22.
Lin Hsin-teh, deputy
director-general of the Civil Aeronautics
Administration under the Ministry of
Transportation and Communications, made the
remarks at a public hearing called by opposition
Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung at the
Legislative Yuan in which government officials,
academicians and industry executives got together
to discuss ways to develop Taipei's tourism.
Responding to Ting's proposal that Sung Shan
Airport be allowed to service direct flights from
Shanghai's Hongqiao International Airport, Lin
said that Chiang Kai-shek International Airport
(TPE) near Taipei and Kaohsiung International
Airport in southern Taiwan are more suitable.
Sung Shan Airport is not being considered
by the government for flights to the mainland at
present, Lin said, adding that this possibility
could be studied after conditions for direct links
across the Taiwan Strait have become ripe.
Appointing an airport for cross-strait direct
flights will mainly depend on the situation
between Taiwan and China, he explained.
Sung Shan Airport, originally
a Japanese military airbase, had served as
Taipei's main international airport until 1979,
when international flights were moved to the
newly opened Chiang-Kai Shek International
Airport. The question of whether to allow flights to
mainland China from Sung Shan is controversial in
Taiwan because if mainland-bound flights are
considered domestic, this implies that Taiwan is
part of China.
Hsia Chu-jeou, a professor
at National Taiwan University, said that the
government should open Taiwan to Chinese tourists
as soon as possible and should designate Sung Shan
Airport to ply direct links with Hongqiao Airport,
to help inject economic momentum to both Taipei
and Taiwan.
Taiwan Visitors Association
Chairman Stanley Yen urged the government to hold
substantive talks with China to ward off a
possible negative impact of the opening. Arguing
that the government must not pass the
responsibility of preventing the absconding en
masse of some groups of Chinese tourists to
tourist agents, Yen said it is the government's
responsibility to negotiate with China on the
issue and ask the Chinese side to take measures to
stop any re-occurrences.
Nevertheless, Yen
called for a standard practice in receiving
Chinese tourists, pointing out that there must be
no differences in treating visitors from China or
elsewhere. This, he said, will help Chinese
visitors gain a better understanding of Taiwan and
improve Taiwan's international image. A
representative from the Travel Quality Assurance
Association suggested that Taiwan hotels treat
Chinese tourists fairly because poor treatment
will seriously taint Taiwan's image.
(Asia
Pulse/CNA) |
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