Taiwan says PRC’s new air routes threaten flight safety

Reuters

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) arbitrary decision to open new air routes that pass near two Taiwan islands poses a flight safety risk, Taiwan officials said, adding that any aircraft using the routes would be ordered to turn around.

Taipei expressed anger in January 2024 after Beijing unilaterally changed the M503 flight path near the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which has served for decades as an unofficial demarcation between Taiwan and the PRC. The PRC claims democratically governed Taiwan as its territory and threatens to annex it by force.

The new routes to the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Fuzhou, called W123 and W122 respectively, connect to M503. They run alongside existing routes to Taiwan’s Kinmen and Matsu islands, which have regular flights to and from the main island of Taiwan.

The PRC said in January it would open west-east routes — in other words, toward Taiwan — on the two flight paths from Xiamen and Fuzhou. In mid-April, the PRC’s civil aviation regulator said the routes were now operating and that it would “further optimize” airspace around Fuzhou airport beginning May 16.

That is four days before Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te is inaugurated. A senior Taiwan official said the flight route announcement was part of Beijing’s pattern of pre-inauguration pressure.

“They want us to cave in, make compromises and change our behavior,” the official said.

Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration said the PRC’s move seriously threatens aviation safety. Near Kinmen, the PRC’s and Taiwan’s flight paths are only about 2 kilometers apart.

“The airspace between the two sides is very small, and there are certain risks,” the agency stated, adding that Taiwan air traffic controllers will “strongly request” that Chinese controllers guide aircraft away from Taiwan’s air space.

Taiwan prohibits PRC aircraft from entering its airspace around Kinmen and Matsu.