Taipei airport gearing up for direct flights

Lin Shin-teh, deputy chief at the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), told Legislator John Chiang that renovations of the facilities, including terminal building, will be completed by June 30 before the test run.

Both Terminal I and Terminal II buildings will expand the facilities for checking in, document inspection, quarantine, customs clearance, and security services to accommodate the needs of both Taiwan residents and mainland Chinese who will come to Taiwan for sightseeing.

Lawmaker Chiang said he was impressed with the efficient, inexpensive preparations of the CAA.

Lin said expansion will proceed in order to meet the needs of the growing umber of incoming tourists.

The Taipei Songshan Airport, once the major international airport on the island, is presently catering to domestic flight passengers.

It was designated by the government of President Ma Ying-jeou as one of the eight Taiwan airports that will participate in the regular direct weekend passenger charter flight service across the Taiwan Strait.

The other airports include the Taoyuan International Airport in northern Taiwan, the Chingchuangang Airport in central Taichung City, the Hsiaokang Airport in southern Kaohsiung, Taitung and Hualien airports in eastern Taiwan, the Makung Airport in offshore Penghu County, and Kinmen and Matsu airports on the two frontline islands.

Officials of the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) will hold meetings with their Chinese counterparts of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) to work out a final pact in mid-June for the direct flight service.

Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan of the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the government’s decision-making agency for policies toward China, told lawmakers of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party that the issue concerning charter cargo flights had been discussed with Beijing during previous talks.

Since the top priority for now is to ensure a smooth launch of the regular direct weekend passenger charter flights in July, the details and differences about the cargo flights will be ironed out at a later time.

The DPP lawmakers, who advocate Taiwan independence and strive to alienate Taiwan from China, grilled Lai over the breakfast meeting, demanding her give a translation of the English term “Chinese Taipei” into Mandarin.

In the lawmakers’ minds, the term “Chinese Taipei” can be translated only into “Zhongguo (China) Taipei” in Chinese language, thus subjecting Taipei (and Taiwan) to China.

Lai explained that the same English term can also translated into “Zhonghua” meaning “China the beautiful” in the sense of culture and sceneries without political implications.

Analysts observed that after holding power for eight years, the DPP still cannot kick the mentality and habit of wasting time and energy on ideologies.

The English term “Chinese” can be correctly translated into both “Zhongguo” and “Zhonghua (or Chunghwa).”

The three oldest TV networks set up in Taiwan in the 1960s still carry the English names of “Taiwan TV, China TV, and Chinese TV” respectively with official Chinese-language names of “Taiwan, Zhongguo, and Zhonghua.”

All the terms have coexisted in Taiwan for decades and most people in Taiwan dislike seeing lawmakers waste taxpayers’ money as well as government officials’ valuable time and energy on the name issue, the analysts said.

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