More sense from Turnbull Government on China today:
[Transport Minister] Mr McCormack concurred: “There should be no political pressure from governments that threatens the ordinary operations of business.”
As did Senator Payne: “We do not think that companies should be directed one way or another to how they display information in terms of scheduling or their website by anybody in particular, and if they make decisions in that regard that is for them.”
…Labor Leader Bill Shorten said Taiwan was a complex issue but kowtowing to Beijing was a business decision for Qantas.
“I’d probably rather that hadn’t happened. Having said that, that’s a business decision for Qantas, I’m not going to start running their airline for them,” he said.
Meanwhile, less kowtowing in the US:
This is Orwellian nonsense and part of a growing trend by the Chinese Communist Party to impose its political views on American citizens and private companies,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said in a statement.
A group of US senators recently wrote to the airlines urging them to rebuff China’s request.
A bipartisan group of US senators, including Cory Gardner from Colorado and Marco Rubio from Florida, recently wrote to United and American to urge them to resist the “long arm” of the Chinese government. Mr Gardner told the Financial Times that the airlines should think twice about complying with the Chinese order, and said the US should consider retaliatory measures again Chinese airlines if necessary.
So, from Great Southern Canton you can still shuttle your way to Taiwan via Hawaii.
