High Dudgeon

Flight 801 sparks a row

Right on the button, at 8:20 p.m., the huge Lockheed L1011 jetliner swept out of the evening darkness and touched down at the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport near Taipei. Flight 801 from Tokyo was the first plane bearing the blue and white colors of Pan American World Airways to land in Taiwan since 1978; less than 24 hours after its 113 passengers had disembarked last Wednesday, it was at the center of a diplomatic row between the U.S. and China. In Peking, China's Assistant Foreign Minister summoned the U.S. charge d'affaires and delivered a formal note of protest. Minutes later, the U.S. economic affairs counsellor was handed an official letter from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) detailing retaliatory measures that would be taken against Pan Am, the only U.S. airline with regular flights to Peking.

China's objections to Pan Am's planned three flights a week to Taiwan are based on claims that the island remains a part of the mainland. Peking argues that any direct dealings with Taipei by the U.S., whether business, political or military, amount to infringement of China's national sovereignty.

On that basis, the note maintained that Washington's authorization of the renewed flights "ignored China's sovereignty [and] hurt the national feeling of the Chinese people." The note added that Pan Am had "gone back on its commitment [to halt Taiwan nights five years ago] and resumed its service without the consent of the Chinese side." Accordingly, the CAAC demanded consultations with the U.S. "at the earliest possible date" to select a new U.S. carrier without Taiwan connections for the China run. At the same time, the CAAC letter took more direct action, terminating Pan Am's access to an air corridor from the Burma border across southern China to Hong Kong and rescinding the airline's emergency landing right at the Canton airport as an alternative to Hong Kong.

The penalties signaled a tough new approach by Peking to the whole matter of U.S. commercial links to Taiwan, but they were not as harsh as some U.S. diplomats had expected. Pan Am has never used the Burma air route, and the loss of Canton for emergency landings is not as dangerous as it sounds, since planes flying into the area always carry enough excess fuel to divert to another city if Hong Kong airport is closed. Significantly, Peking stopped short of terminating the 1980 Sino-U.S. aviation pact and unilaterally banning Pan Am from the mainland, a move that would have virtually forced retaliation against CAAC flights to the U.S.

In Washington, U.S. officials said that they were "disappointed" by the Chinese move, but they noted that the Government lacked the legal authority to force a U.S. carrier to cease operating a route unless it has broken U.S. law. For now, Pan Am plans to continue flights to both Peking and Taipei. The airline, however, may not be so unhappy if it is eventually barred from China; insiders say that Pan Am has in fact been losing money on its China service. By contrast, the Taiwan route is reckoned to be highly profitable. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.