The Taiwan aviation authority still refuses to give the green light to the 176 extra flights planned by China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Air to facilitate travel from the mainland back to the island for Spring Festival.

Safety concerns have been cited as the excuse because both airlines fly the M503 air route. But that route has been proved safe since it was launched on March 29, 2015. It is obvious that the island’s authorities are playing a political game at the cost of convenient cross-Straits travel during the holiday.

With hidden intent, the leaders of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party said that they would be willing to sit down and talk with the mainland if the latter gives a goodwill gesture.

They well know that the mainland would turn a deaf ear to such an offer, since cajoling the mainland into talks on the issue would end up as a fait accompli that the mainland resumed communication with the island authorities without the latter upholding the 1992 Consensus that there is only one China.

Then the DPP no doubt believes it will be able to shift the blame for the travel inconvenience onto the mainland, saying it shows no concern for compatriots on the island, and is not willing to sit down and talk with the island for measures to facilitate their travel across the Straits for Spring Festival.

What a clever trick it must have seemed to them.

Yet they have failed to conceal this ulterior motive. It is evident what they are trying to engineer with their poor excuse for not approving the extra flights.

It is absurd for the Taiwan authorities to believe that those intending to travel to the island during the trouble, who it seems will now have to make a more convoluted journey via Jinmen Island, will point an accusing finger at the mainland for the inconvenience they have encountered because of the Taiwan authorities’ absurd decision.

By refusing the extra flights, the Taiwan authorities are only shooting themselves in the foot. The trick they are trying to play only reveals their true nature as secessionists pursuing their political goal at the expense of the well-being of the island’s residents.