Home>>China
Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, May 27, 2002

Let 'Direct Links' Honor Crash Victims: Taiwan Media

Taiwan's United Daily issued a commentary titled "Do Not Forget China Airlines Air Crash Victims Be Honored When 'Three Links' Are Launched" on May 26 criticizing Taiwan authorities' failure in carrying out the cross-Strait "three direct links" which has resulted in the 206 passengers' death due to political reasons.


PRINT DISCUSSION CHINESE SEND TO FRIEND



Missing Taiwan Plane Confirmed Crashed into Sea
The air crash of China Airlines has made both domestic and overseas Chinese feel most bitterly sad at heart.

Taiwan's United Daily issued a commentary titled "Do Not Forget China Airlines Air Crash Victims Be Honored When 'Three Links' Are Launched" on May 26 criticizing Taiwan authorities' failure in carrying out the cross-Strait "three direct links" which has resulted in the 206 passengers' death due to political reasons.

Their deaths are totally to no purpose, lamentable.

The article requests that when time should come the "three direct links" must be launched in memory of China Airlines air crash victims.


83 Bodies Recovered in Taiwan Air Crash
Two reporters of United Daily were on the plane when it crashed, all fellow workers of the newspaper expressed great shocks and hurt about the accident. It is a black mark on both China Airlines and Taiwan's civil aviation industry.

The article pointed out that China Airlines was a syndicate of politics and commerce. Since the advent of Lee Tenghui times, he had wanted to change the airlines, on one hand, to take its commerce advantage, on the other hand, to change its political color. When Democratic Progressive Party took post, such actions became all the more unscrupulous.

When "three direct links" are still under talks between the two sides, the crash made people more enraged because most of the 206 passengers were not bound for Hong Kong, but for mainland via Hong Kong. If direct flight permitted, they might not be on this plane.

There are many reasons to advocate direct flight between the two sides across the Taiwan Straits. One of the most important is to maintain human rights. Flight safety is a problem of opportunity, one more flight, one more risk. If a normal flight accident happened, only fate could be counted, but if passengers died of political problem, are their deaths not totally meaningless?

However, there are about 3 million people every year to risk the danger, spend unworthy money to fly via Hong Kong. Some one will lose life, it is inevitable soon or later. Can those victims ask Taiwan authorities for compensation for their ban on direct flight from Taiwan to mainland?



By PD Online Staff Li Yan

Taiwan Air Crash
  • Accident:A China Airlines passenger jetliner with 206 passengers and 19 crew en route from Taipei to Hong Kong crashed into the Taiwan Straits off the island county of Penghu Saturday afternoon.

  • Rescue work: Taiwanese transportation authorities said that search vessels had found more than 100 bodies in the sea around 25 nautical miles north of Penghu where aChina Airlines jetliner crashed Saturday.

  • Condolences & external assistance: Soon after the crash, the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) sent a letter of condolences Saturday to the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in Taiwan. China's Communications Ministry Sunday afternoon sent two powerful tugboats to help the rescue work in the vicinity of the crash site.






    • Questions?Comments? Click here
    		    Advanced






    Wrap-up: 83 Bodies Recovered in Taiwan Air Crash 

    Crashed China Airlines Plane Said to Break up in Sky

    Taiwan Airline Told to Suspend Operation of All Boeing 747-200s





    >> Full Coverage

     


    China Sets to Land on Moon by 2010 ( 64 Messages)

    "Solid Water" Invented for Planting Trees in Deserts ( 3 Messages)

    UNDP Starts Research on Chinese Women in WTO ( 90 Messages)

    Clinton Reaps US$250,000 in 30-Minute Speech in Shenzhen ( 15 Messages)

    Lee Kuan Yew: China to Overtake the US in 2050 ( 16 Messages)

    Japanese, Chinese Economy Combined to Overtake US in 20 Years ( 16 Messages)



    Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved