DATE=8/10/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=TAIWAN-US-AIRCRAFT (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-252637
BYLINE=STEPHANIE HO
DATELINE=TAIPEI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Taiwan's flag carrier, China Airlines, has
decided to buy passenger jets from European aircraft
manufacturer Airbus Industrie, not from the American
firm, Boeing. As Correspondent Stephanie Ho reports
from Taipei, opinions are split as to whether the
decision was political or commercial.
Text: Last-minute lobbying by U-S Senator Slade
Gorton was not enough to sway China Airlines from
deciding to purchase as many as 15-passenger jets from
Airbus. Analysts say it is a two-billion-dollar deal.
Senator Gorton is from Washington state, which is
where rival aircraft-maker Boeing is headquartered.
Although Airbus won the hotly-contested competition to
provide passenger planes, China Airlines announced
that it would buy more than a dozen cargo planes from
Boeing, for as much as two-and-one-half billion
dollars.
Western media have suggested the decision by
partially-privatized "China Airlines" to purchase
Airbus planes was ordered by Taiwan's government.
They say it is in retaliation for Washington's failure
to support Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui's
controversial redefinition of Taipei's relations with
Beijing. President Lee's comments last month angered
China and caused Washington to send urgent messages
calling for calm to both Taipei and Beijing.
Soochow University political science professor, Yang
Kai-huang, says the China Airlines decision to choose
Airbus over Boeing was not a simple business deal. He
says he feels the Taiwanese government interfered in
the decision.
// YANG ACT //
I think it is a political issue, instead of a
business issue.
// END ACT //
Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui denied government
involvement in the decision, calling the deal a purely
commercial activity.
In a private meeting Monday with Senator Gorton in
Taipei, Taiwan's Minister of Transportation and
Communications, Lin Fong-cheng, said he would relay
the Senator's concern to China Airlines, but said the
government will stay out of the matter.
China Airlines says the decision to switch from Boeing
to Airbus planes was made in June -- before President
Lee made his controversial remarks.
A German transportation executive, who has worked in
Taipei for more than 30-years, says he believes the
government denials and sees the deal as a purely
commercial decision. The businessman, who asked not
to be named, acknowledges that given the timing, there
are political overtones. But he says China Airlines
may not want to buy only Boeing planes -- which he
compared to putting all its eggs in one basket.
(SIGNED)
NEB/HO/FC/RAE
10-Aug-1999 08:29 AM EDT (10-Aug-1999 1229 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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