When Austin passed ridesharing regulations – covering background checks, taking an off-the-top cut of revenue, and preserving prime festival pickup and dropoff spots for cabs — Uber and Lyft pulled out. THey’re back, but only because Texas passed statewide rules that pre-empty local jurisdiction regulation of ridesharing.
On the other hand New York city has been micromanaging ridesharing for years, and while Uber and Lyft push back and lobby, calling attention to the cronyism and attempt to preserve the value of taxi monopolies while doing so under the guise of issues New Yorkers are apt to care about (classic ‘bootleggers and baptists’ scenario) ridesharing companies don’t pull out of New York.
Uber sold out to Didi in China, but China was another market that could regulate Uber as it wished. It’s big enough, and has been the perennial ‘next big thing’ that never quite becomes the next big thing. Companies give up on China at their peril.
So when the US administration amped up trade rhetoric on China, China began squeezing US companies especially ones with visible brands. Marriott fired a social media employee who ‘liked’ a Friends of Tibet tweet, and even self-reported a banned book in the lobby of one of its hotels. China has insisted travel companies not list Taiwan as a separate country.
Of course, they’ve largely complied. US airlines though haven’t gone so far as to identify Taiwan as explicitly part of China as many world airlines have. Indeed US airlines are trapped between their Chinese regulators and needing to appease the government at home which has publicly rebuked China for attempting to regulate US corporate speech.
Now Taiwan is considering punishing airlines that fully comply with Chinese demands and rewarding airlines that don’t.
- Airlines could be punished by barring their use of jet bridges and taking away prime takeoff and landing slots, making them fly at less convenient times.
- Airlines could be rewarded with lower landing fees and facilities charges.
It’s interesting to note that these are geared towards annoying rather than banning, that they’re far more mild than mainland Chinese threats. That’s not because Taiwan is more reasonable, rather it evinces a recognition that Taiwan cannot win in a game where airlines have to choose serving the Republic of China or serving the Peoples Republic of China. In a globalized world the largest market gets to regulate (like New York), and the smaller market (like Austin) has to follow those regulations at best.
Retaliating with higher charges and less convenient flight times though is still cutting off Taiwan’s nose to spite their face — because these are actions which at the margin make air service less profitable for an airline, and could jeopardize marginal flights or cause airlines to downgauge aircraft. That in turn harms consumers looking to travel to and from Taiwan, yet it’s precisely Taiwan’s relative openness that drives its economic and diplomatic strength.
Furthermore, tit-for-tat risks escalation in a war that the Taiwanese government cannot win.
I’ve found it amusing how certain airlines have handled the situation. For example, JAL used to ask you which *country* and language you wanted for their web page. Now, it asks what *city* and language you want. Seems the perfect compromise: if the PRC gets upset when people call Taiwan a country, stop referring to any country except the home market.
New York may have talked about micro-managing the ride sharing companies, but until now, thanks to brilliant lobbying by Uber and disgust with the yellow cab industry, not much has happened. That appears about to change with the suicides of six taxi drivers (one in front of City Hall) seemingly having changed the discourse.
Gary, sad to see you report on this non-story.
However you hate the red China’s behavior, this thing is not news worthy because :
1. ROC officials in this government are mostly politicians instead of professional officials served in the industry for decades, thus they make irrelevant comments all the time, and reverse their terms everyday so nobody should make a big deal out of what they say. Definitely not news worthy.
2. These countermeasures of harassing airlines risk violating IATA regulations. Comments?
3. The “retaliation” is so stupid, eg ask airplanes of the size of an A380 to use trolley instead of jet bridges? How many trolley trips are enough for 300 people? probably >15. It will be a mess. ROC gov faced the backlash so bad that they already reversed their terms on “retaliation”. Thus the “nonstory”. The story is denied by ROC gov itself, and it happened a day ago. Here is news resource: https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/gangtai/hx-08062018101332.html
@jerry – new york uber is much more regulated than most of the country
@RickJames you are full of nonsense
@Jerry if yellow cabs can’t compete then maybe that is their problem? Tired of living in a city where the mayor thinks he can just force his views on everyone who lives here.
If companies would do the right thing they would ban together and refuse to give into outrageous Chinese demands. Yea China can target certain companies, but if all foreign companies stand together on issues like this the chinese government will back down.
@RickJames: Your link leads to a story written in Chinese, Jethro.
I really believe ROC needs to retaliate against US State Department. It all started when USA abandoned Taiwan and established diplomatic relationship with PRC. Isn’t it easier if ROC just claim independent and make USA recognize it officially, before targeting US based companies…
I’ve always thought the readers of these travel blogs have a better and more sophisticated view of global affairs and politics, yet some of the comments here make me feel like LOL and WTF at the same time.
@WW – sorry, there’s a lot more history behind the mainland China/Taiwan conflict for the past hundreds of years that involves a few dynasties and countries like Japan, Portugal, etc. I know USA is a great nation but sorry hon not everything “all started when USA” blah blah blah. And no, it’s not easier if ROC just claim independent and make USA recognize it. Think about the consequences for the local people. It could lead to economic disaster for Taiwan. It could lead to another civil war. It’s not easy AT ALL. Think twice. Think BiH.
@Bill – “the right thing” is an interesting term. Let’s be fair – Taiwan is, and will be, a great leverage for the US to deal with China in the APAC region from a political and foreign policy point of view, but that’s about it when people say “it’s the right thing to do”, purely from a political perspective for the US. I doubt if all foreign companies will “stand together” on issues like this, because it’s certainly not the “righteous” thing to do. It simply can’t be justified unless 45 pulls US out of the UN some day.
This is all about politics and using economic and business leverages to achieve political purposes. China is doing that (Airlines, hotels), US is doing that (ZTE, Huawei), everyone is doing that. Can we just stick to the impact analysis on our travel life and not let this place become another ideological battle field? It’s just stupid and naive.