Taipei may hit back at airlines that complied with ‘Taiwan, China’ demand
Transport ministry said to be mulling ‘countermeasures’ such as barring use of boarding bridges and adjustments to take-off and landing slots
Taiwan’s transport ministry is said to be considering “countermeasures” against foreign airlines that have yielded to Beijing’s demand that they refer to the island as part of China on their websites.
In addition to barring them from using passenger boarding bridges at airports, the carriers could also be subject to random adjustments to their take-off and landing slots by air traffic controllers as Taipei tries to apply pressure on them, a Taipei-based newspaper reported on Monday, citing an unnamed ministry source.
Meanwhile, carriers that took a more neutral approach to the request from Beijing – by just dropping the country name from their Taiwan destinations – would be given incentives such as reduced or no landing fees and facilities charges, according to United Daily News.
On April 25, Beijing issued an order to 44 international airlines that operate mainland routes to stop listing Taiwan as a country on their websites and instead refer to it as “Taiwan, China” or the “China Taiwan region”. It also wanted the airlines to display Taiwan on their maps in the same colour used for mainland China. The White House described the demands as “Orwellian nonsense”.
Four US carriers – American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines – removed any reference to Taiwan, using only city names on their booking pages. Hong Kong’s airlines changed the reference to “Taiwan, China”, while many international carriers also complied with the demand.
Beijing sees Taiwan as a part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, even though the island views itself as a sovereign nation and is a self-ruling democracy.