A dozen more US senators on Thursday criticized Beijing’s demand that 44 international airlines label Taiwan as part of China on their Web sites and warned that there were more offensives to come.
Following other international airlines, three leading US carriers — American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines — on Tuesday conformed with China’s request ahead of a Wednesday deadline by leaving only “Taipei” and “TPE” on their destination lists and removing “Taiwan.”
“This bullying of the airlines is really just one small piece of a much larger puzzle, and one that we need to continue to be vigilant about,” US Senate Assistant Majority Leader John Cornyn said.
US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations member Chris Coons also expressed his opposition to Beijing’s move.
“I object to China’s attempt to intimidate companies and wash away Taiwan’s existence as a democracy committed to human rights and the rule of law. I stand with the State Department and my Congressional colleagues in supporting Taiwan’s correct designation on websites,” he said on Twitter.
Washington Post columnist and CNN analyst Josh Rogin also said that the US should be prepared for more to come from China.
“The United States lost an important early skirmish this week over whether American companies must comply with the Chinese government’s political demands, but the greater conflict is just beginning, which means the Trump administration must now prepare to help US corporations fight Chinese coercion in future rounds,” he wrote.
Airline representatives told him that the US government did not offer any tangible protection in the recent dispute and even endorsed the compromise of simply eliminating “Taiwan” in lists of cities and airports, Rogin said.
However, the half-concession appears to have only emboldened Beijing, as the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration called the US airlines’ actions incomplete and demanded total capitulation, Rogin said.
Chinese officials are threatening to damage the airlines’ business in China, in contravention of international trade laws, he said.
“The reality is American corporations can’t be expected to be guided by purely moral considerations, and the US government can’t tell American companies what to do,” he wrote. “That’s an asymmetric advantage for Beijing.”
If US airlines and the US government could work together, it would be a model for other industries facing Chinese pressure, Rogin said.
“Beijing wants to divide and conquer. By uniting, setting clear principles and coordinating responses, foreign firms have greater power to fight back,” he added.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash