US to block passenger flights by Chinese airlines
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Washington DC, June 04: The US Department of Transportation said that they are going to suspend all passenger flights by Chinese airlines from flying to and from the country as the Beijing prevented the US flight services to resume between the two countries amid escalating tensions between the two nations.
The order issued Wednesday takes effect June 16, although President Donald Trump could act sooner if he chooses, the Department of Transportation said in a statement.
"US carriers have asked to resume passenger service, beginning June 1st. The Chinese government's failure to approve their requests is a violation of our Air Transport Agreement," the US Transportation Department (DoT) said in a statement.
The US Transportation Department alleged that China was violating a pact on international travel between the two countries by keeping America's United Airlines and Delta Airlines from re-starting flight operations to mainland China, which were supposed to resume from June 1. The four airlines affected by the order are Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Xiamen Airlines.
“The Department will continue to engage our Chinese counterparts so both US and Chinese carriers can fully exercise their bilateral rights,” the agency said in a statement. “In the meantime, we will allow Chinese carriers to operate the same number of scheduled passenger flights as the Chinese government allows ours.”
China recently paused some agriculture imports after Trump threatened to eliminate the policy exemptions that allow America to treat Hong Kong differently than the mainland.
The relation between the countries has deteriorated sharply since the trump threaten china over the origin of the pandemic and the treatment of Hong Kong. On Friday, Trump said that the U.S. would “begin the process" of eliminating the policy exemptions that allow America to treat Hong Kong differently than the mainland.
Trump's administration on May 22 accused the Chinese government of making it impossible for U.S. airlines to resume service to China and ordered four Chinese carriers to file flight schedules with the U.S. government.