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Taiwan protests China’s opening of aviation routes over Taiwan Strait

FORUM Staff

Taiwan objected to China’s opening of four new aviation routes over the Taiwan Strait in early January 2018, according to wire service reports, saying the move will damage regional security.

“We believe … this is purposefully using civil aviation as a cover for improper intentions regarding Taiwan politics and even military affairs,” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a prepared statement, Agence France-Presse reported.

China did not consult with Taiwan regarding opening the flight corridor, which “ignores flight safety and disrespects Taiwan,” the MAC statement said.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, pictured, said China’s actions hurt relations in the Taiwan Strait, Reuters reported.

“This kind of unilateral changing of the situation, this practice that harms regional stability, is not something that will be viewed favorably by the international community,” Tsai said.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, in responding to the January 2018 announcement on China’s Civil Aviation Administration website, said that Taiwan’s military will intercept, warn and repel if necessary any planes that enter Taiwan airspace, Kyodo News, a leading Japanese news agency, reported.

“We find China’s unilateral decision unacceptable,” Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Frank Fan told an emergency news conference at the MAC.

Reuters reported that China has also advanced its military modernization program, which includes increasing “island encirclement patrols” around Taiwan. In addition, Chinese air force jets have been flying close to or into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone with increased frequency in recent months. Such activities have raised fears that China will eventually use military force against Taiwan, Taiwan News, an online newspaper, reported.

MAC Minister Katharine Chang said the council had called for China to immediately stop using the new routes and to meet with Taiwan to ensure aviation safety, according to Kyodo News.

“If China continues to do only what it wishes, it must shoulder all serious consequences that might affect cross-strait relations,” Chang said.

The routes, which include a northbound M503 route over the Taiwan Strait, which runs close to the island’s airspace, violate the terms of a 2015 agreement regarding the flight routes, according to Chang.

China cut off official contact with Taiwan after President Tsai assumed office in 2016.

China claimed in January 2018 that it needed to open the Taiwan Strait routes to accommodate increasing air traffic and congestion. However, Fan challenged China’s rationale, citing statistics that show only 60 to 70 flights a day on average travel the M503 route, Kyodo News reported.

The four new routes run near Taiwan’s military exercise zones, and two of the routes are close to aviation routes to Taiwan’s outlying islands of Matsu and Kinmen, according to Agence France-Presse.

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