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TAIWAN WANTS WRITTEN RESPONSE FROM MAINLAND OVER CHARTER FLIGHTS

2003-12-12 21:02:08

    Taipei, Dec. 12 (CNA) Taiwan prefers a written response from the mainland over negotiations about charter flights between Taiwan and Shanghai during the Chinese Lunar New Year, a mainland affairs official said Friday.

    With the Chinese Lunar New Year only 40 days away, chances for charter flights between Taiwan and the mainland seem dim. However, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tong said at a news conference Friday that Beijing's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait replied by phone to its Taiwan counterpart, the Straits Exchange Foundation, regarding Taiwan's offer to talk on lining up the charter flights, but Taiwan prefers a formal response in writing.

    Taiwan air carriers provided charter flights between Shanghai and Taiwan with a brief stopover in Hong Kong or Macau earlier this year during the previous Chinese Lunar New Year. They would like to continue the flights this time around to serve Taiwan businessmen working on the mainland.

    However, Beijing aviation officials said mainland carriers that were excluded from the service last time should join in the operation this time and take a share of the market.

    The MAC agreed right away but insisted on negotiating with Beijing over the details, a request at which Beijing balked. Beijing has severed all official contacts with Taiwan since 1999 because of Taiwan's refusal to acknowledge that it is a part of China and will not resume discussions now because of concerns that it might lend a hand to President Chen Shui-bian's presidential campaign.

    As a result, the charter flight service plan is still up in the air.

    The proposed charter flights would fly the current route between Taiwan and Shanghai with a stopover in either Hong Kong or Macau. The only difference would be that passengers would not have to change planes during the stopover.

    Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications estimated that more than 15,000 Taiwan businessmen in Fujian province, southern China, will return to Taiwan during the Chinese Lunar New Year via Taiwan's frontline islands of Kinmen and Matsu.

    That figure will be four times more than that of the last Chinese Lunar New Year when 3,500 persons returned from Kinmen and 65 from Matsu.

    They will be ferried by boats from Xiamen or Fuzhou, both in Fujian, to the two islands before taking a 40-minute flight back to Taiwan.

(By Maubo Chang)

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