Steer clear of flight talks, Taipei told
But Taiwan sidesteps Beijing's demand for deal to be struck by private sector
Beijing yesterday renewed its warning against any kind of official involvement by Taiwan in the talks to lay down arrangements for cross-strait charter flights, but Taipei continued to sidestep the issue.
He Shizhong, director of the Economic Affairs Department of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said it would show a 'lack of sincerity' to suggest that Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Commission (MAC) or the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) should take part in the discussion.
'If someone were to suggest that people from the MAC or SEF should take part [in the discussion], we would consider it inappropriate and impractical,' Mr He said at a press conference in Beijing yesterday.
'This can also be said to be a show of a lack of sincerity.'
Mr He said the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait had decided to stay out of the discussion between the airlines to 'avoid creating certain unnecessary political disruption'.
Mr He said that as long as Taiwan was sincere, time was not a problem for working out technical details.
He reiterated Beijing's position that cross-strait flights were internal affairs, which should be addressed through existing channels. But 'for reasons known to all', he said, the dialogue had been interrupted and the charter flights were a special case to allow Taiwanese businesspeople to return home for Lunar New Year.
Taiwan has proposed that the talks be based on its aviation agreement with Hong Kong, where Taipei delegated power to an industry representative to finalise the pact.
Mr He sidestepped questions over whether the delegation of power was a crucial component of the talks. 'Whatever works is the best model,' he said.
If the charter flights finally take off, Mr He expects the experience will boost confidence in pushing forward direct air links.
Taipei's MAC insisted, however, that government agencies must be involved if the charter flight issue touched on areas that needed authorisation.
'In areas that involve government power, relevant departments must take part' in the negotiations, said MAC vice-chairman Chiu Tai-san. But he stressed that this did not mean the MAC must take part in the talks because 'charter flights differ from the general aviation agreements'.
He declined to say that the MAC and the SEF would not be personally involved in the talks as Beijing has demanded.
Asked if the government had drawn up a list of participants to attend the talks, Mr Chiu said: 'Until now, the mainland has yet to send us concrete topics for talks, and how can we prepare the list?
'They asked for bilateral, reciprocal and non-stop flights and we have agreed on that since October, but for the rest of details, we have no idea what they want to discuss.'
Mr Chiu urged the mainland to quickly send concrete proposals for talks.
