When U.S. Senator Graham visited Taiwan, he publicly asked Taiwan to purchase Boeing 787 aircraft. The $8 billion purchase is seen as a new target for Taiwan after the U.S. sold pork containing clenbuterol to Taiwan.
According to Taiwan media reports, although China Airlines’ A330 medium-haul fleet has reached the obsolete period, it retains its attitude towards the procurement case.
Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen met with a visiting delegation of US congressmen on April 15. Graham said in person that he hoped to further strengthen economic relations with Taiwan. “We hope you will buy the (Boeing) 787.”
Graham also mentioned at the press conference in Taiwan that the passenger planes produced by Boeing hope to be sold to Taiwan, including Taiwan’s China Airlines.
However, Graham’s statement that Taiwan would buy the Boeing 787 can be found in the English verbatim transcript provided by the website of Tsai Ing-wen’s office, but the press release read after the “Chinese” conversion does not contain this text.
In this regard, Tsai Ing-wen’s office spokesman Zhang Dunhan said that when Tsai Ing-wen met the group, there was a live webcast, and the Chinese and English versions of the press release were always embellished.
China Airlines doesn’t want to pay
Reservation of attitude towards purchase case
China Airlines currently has 22 Airbus A330-300 aircraft for medium-haul and medium-haul capacity. It used to serve China Airlines’ regional routes. The first aircraft was delivered in 2004, and it is now reaching the metabolic age.
According to the annual report of China Airlines, 10 A330s leased from Qiu Capital Aviation Service Co., Ltd. will gradually expire this year.
People familiar with the matter pointed out that China Airlines’ current fleet can replace A330-300 with A330-900, but 737-800 will soon be replaced by A321neo, which means that it will be all Airbus in the future; plus A330 is the main force on the cross-strait line, and now the cross-strait line is almost stopped, the fastest The purchase order will be finalized next year.
Taiwan’s “United Daily News” published a comment saying that Graham asked Taiwan to purchase Boeing 787s, raising the question of whether the Taiwan authorities should “accept all orders”.
However, from the opening of beef and pork containing ractopamine in recent years, to defense reforms, as well as energy and semiconductor supply chains, when Tsai Ing-wen authorities hyped the “rock-solid” relationship between Taiwan and the United States, they are also proving that “there is no free lunch in the world.” “. The Tsai Ing-wen authorities used the US delegation to promote Taiwan-US relations. After the goal was achieved, they still had to pay a certain price.