‘ECONOMICALLY VICTIMIZED’:One KMT official said the president has hung the private sector out to dry by not recognizing the effects of a decline in Chinese tourists
Taipei Times
Date: Nov 23, 2016
By: Lu Yi-hsuan and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday blamed the government for TransAsia Airways’ demise,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hung Meng-kai speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
saying President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) cross-strait policy and a decline in the number of Chinese tourists were responsible for the airline’s dissolution.
Although TransAsia “admittedly has internal problems,” the losses incurred by the declining number of Chinese tourists that occurred under the Tsai administration made TransAsia vulnerable, as cross-strait travel comprised 40 percent of the airline’s operations, KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Tang Te-ming (唐德明) said at a news conference.
TransAsia, an ailing company founded in 1951, is estimated to have paid nearly NT$1.2 billion (US$37.6 million) in compensation to victims and their families of two deadly crashes in July 2014 and February last year.
“The Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] government’s policies have led to a cooling of cross-strait relations, which affected cross-strait flights. Those issues were probably the last straw for TransAsia,” Tang said, citing a recent poll that showed Tsai’s disapproval rating has climbed to nearly 60 percent and identified her cross-strait policy as causing the “suffering of the public.” [FULL STORY]
