What are the consequences of the Taiwan authorities’ threat to cut off scheduled cross-strait flights?

As the Taiwan authorities obstructed overtime Spring Festival travel across the Taiwan Strait, airlines such as China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines were forced to cancel 176 overtime Spring Festival flights. However, the Taiwan authorities did not "give up" and threatened or further cut off scheduled flights of China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines. Public opinion on the island was in an uproar, bombarding the authorities with "no lower limit!"

The Taiwan authorities recently announced that " Due to the dispute over the M503 route, the Civil Aviation Administration has temporarily not approved China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines' applications for a total of 176 cross-strait Spring Festival overtime flights. "This move is expected to affect about 50,000 Taiwanese business passengers and cause inconvenience for them to return home. On the 30th, China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines issued statements on Weibo respectively, criticizing the Taiwan authorities for disregarding the interests of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

After the Taiwan authorities refused to approve overtime flights during the Spring Festival, they intensified their efforts to schedule regular cross-strait flights. According to the United Daily News, Lin Guoxian, the head of Taiwan's Civil Aviation Administration, made another threatening statement, saying that whether to further cancel scheduled flights of China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines "depends on the goodwill and respect of the other side." These remarks are to use regular flights between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait as a bargaining chip to "blackmail" the mainland and throw the "pot" to the mainland.

This approach also caused a strong backlash from public opinion on the island. Bao Zhenghao, director of the Department of Global Political Economics at Tamkang Lanyang Campus, wrote that he couldn't help but "laughed" after seeing the news. The Democratic Progressive Party In order to achieve its temporary gratification, the government now does not care about anything else and is unable to get off the ground. It was already a joke when Zhang Xiaoyue (Chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan) said in a stern voice that "the mainland will be given the slightest punishment" "Threaten" the mainland.

Bao Zhenghao said that threats are only useful if the other party cares about them. Nowadays, cross-strait economic interactions are close and personnel exchanges are frequent. Among them, Taiwanese businessmen travel across the Taiwan Strait, while those from the mainland mainly come for tourism. If the transportation department really cuts scheduled flights, Taiwanese businessmen, not mainland tourists, will be the hardest hit. Under such circumstances, your transportation department threatens to cut off scheduled flights. Who is unlucky? He finally satirized the Taiwan authorities and said, "Brain is a good thing, but not everyone has it." "Whether the next step for the authorities is to directly cut off direct flights across the Taiwan Strait, that would be even worse."

In response to the route safety issue that the Taiwan authorities have been hyping up, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council once responded that since the M503 route was launched as a southbound route, the overall operation has been safe and stable, with widespread participation by airlines from Hong Kong, Macao and Southeast Asia, and it has been effective. Played the role of international civil aviation routes. Since the opening of the northbound route and connecting line, there have been an average of 27 flights per day, which fully demonstrates the safety and reliability of the route. There is no issue affecting flight safety in Taiwan.

It was also announced on January 30 that the person in charge of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) had replied to the head of the Taiwan Civil Aviation Department regarding the M503 route on January 19, saying that the M503 route had started in March 2015. It is put into use and is not a new route. Its location and design comply with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) documents and have been approved by ICAO. All operational technical measures and emergency procedures related to the route are in place.

The person in charge of the China Aviation Industry Association pointed out that Taiwan is still using the M503 route as an excuse, ignoring the interests of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and using the humanitarian needs of the Taiwanese people as a bargaining chip, which is unwise and inhumane. As a representative of the mainland airline industry, I hereby express my support for China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines, and resolutely reject Taiwan’s attempts to shift conflicts away from others.