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Defense officials concerned about opening eight Taiwan airports

ROC Central News Agency

2008-05-22 19:06:46

    Taipei, May 22 (CNA) Ranking Ministry of National Defense (MND) officials were reserved Thursday about the Executive Yuan's plans to open Taiwan's eight major airports for direct weekend cross-strait charter flight services.

    Taking national security into consideration, Deputy Defense Minister Lin Chen-yi said, the ministry would only support the opening of the Taoyuan International Airport in northern Taiwan and Kaohsiung International Airport in the south initially, to direct cross-strait charter flights. "Further assessment would be needed to work out an order of the opening of other airports, including Songshan Airport in the north, the Chingchuankang International Airport in central Taiwan and airports in the eastern counties of Hualien and Taitung, as well as airports in the outlying islands of Kinmen and Penghu," Lin said.

    He was speaking at an interpellation session at the Legislative Yuan's Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. "The Defense Ministry would opt for an order that would see Hualien and Taitung airports be the last two airports to be opened for the direct cross-strait charter flights, given that these two airports also serve as key military bases," Lin added.

    The new government administration of Taiwan, which was inaugurated on May 20, plans to open the eight airports to facilitate the launch of direct cross-strait charter flights on weekends, hopefully in July.

    The flights are expected to help boost Taiwan's lagging economy by easing travel for Chinese tourists as well as for Taiwanese business people.

    Lin stressed that the military's job to defend national security would not relent because of the opening of cross-strait flight service or because of the seemingly eased cross-strait relations since President Ma Ying-jeou was elected in March. "To secure quick and efficient response capability, the MND will increase the deployment of military forces in the airports designated for direct cross-strait charter flights," Lin added.

    Air Force Chief-of-Staff Wu Chien-hsing, who was also fielding questions at the session, echoed Lin's concerns.

    Wu reiterated that the Air Force would have a pre-warning period that is too short once direct cross-strait air routes become operational, given the short distance between Taiwan and mainland China.

    Consequently, Wu said, the Defense Ministry hopes that those Chinese charter flights coming from Beijing and Shanghai which would enter Taiwan proper from the north, approach Taiwan via the B576 Route for international flights -- an arrangement which he said would give the Air Force a longer advance warning period.

    Wu stressed that none of the routes that are used for domestic flights should be opened for direct cross-strait flights.

    Meanwhile, Wu expressed hopes that the Civil Aeronautics Administration provide the MND on daily basis with information about the Chinese flights that are scheduled to fly in the next day so as to help the Air Force recognize and monitor them.

    Wu said that the number of Air Force aircrafts standing by near the designated civilian airports need not to be increased after the direct cross-strait flights are launched, but the deployment of missiles must be bolstered to maintain national security.

(By Deborah Kuo)

ENDITEM/cs