U.S. congressman urges U.S. airlines not to bow to Beijing's demands

ROC Central News Agency

2018/05/11 17:48:01

Washington, May 10 (CNA) U.S. Congressman Ted Yoho (R-FL), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, wrote a letter to American airline carriers on Thursday urging them to resist bowing down to pressure from Beijing and Chinese political correctness.

In his letter to Delta, American and United Airlines, Yoho addressed a recent letter China's Civil Aviation Administration sent to foreign airlines asking them to list Taiwan as a province or region of China, under threat of penalties.

The congressman agreed with the White House, which on May 5 called those demands "Orwellian nonsense" in reference to George Orwell's description of controlling governments in his literature, and pledged Congressional support of American companies against such threats.

"Congress will also stand behind U.S. companies that prudently refuse to be drafted into the CCP's (Chinese Communist Party) political warfare against Taiwan," Yoho wrote in his letter.

According to him, the demands not only "falsely imply that Chinese law controls the carriers' global communications," but are inconsistent with U.S. policy on Taiwan.

Acknowledging that China has used what academics have termed economic blackmail to compel private companies to follow their agenda, Yoho strongly urged the airlines and others in the private sector "to remember that with your global prominence comes corporate responsibility."

He went on to say that these businesses should not lend "undue legitimacy to the CPP's attempts at thought control" or be hijacked to be a CPP mouthpiece.

While American and United Airlines have yet to respond to China's demands. Delta apologized earlier in January for listing Taiwan and Tibet as countries on its website.

(By Chiang Chin-yeh and Kuan-lin Liu)
Enditem/AW