Beijing should immediately stop all flights on four civil aviation routes that were launched yesterday morning, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, adding that aviation officials across the Taiwan Strait should begin negotiations on the issue as soon as possible.
“China must be held accountable for any serious consequences that would affect the cross-strait relations should it continue to allow the flights to operate,” MAC Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) said at a news conference in Taipei.
The aviation routes are northbound flights on the north-south M503 route, which is very close to the median line of the Taiwan Strait, as well as three east-west extension routes — W121, W122 and W123 — along the southeast coast of China.
China unilaterally created the routes in 2015 on the grounds that they would be used to alleviate flight congestion on its A470 route.
Both sides then reached an agreement in 2015 following negotiations between civil aviation officials that only southbound flights would be permitted on route M503 and that the three extension routes would not be activated until after the negotiations had been completed, Chang said.
However, China simultaneously activated the three extension routes and allowed northbound flights to operate on the M503 route yesterday morning without negotiating with Taipei in advance, Chang said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“We believe that China not only breached the terms of the 2015 agreement, but it is also attempting to cover its malicious intentions toward Taiwan — both politically and militarily — under the guise of civil aviation. The move has generated concerns that it could potentially change the ‘status quo’ across the Taiwan Strait,” she said.
Since both sides of the Taiwan Strait agreed to allow southbound flights use the M503 route in 2015, the actual rate of usage had been very low, Chang said.
Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) statistics show that about 60 to 70 flights use the southbound M503 route daily.
The council has informed China’s Taiwan Affairs Office about the nation’s position on this matter through established channels of communication, Chang said, adding that its appeals were made out concerns for aviation safety.
Flights on the M503 route do not only carry Taiwanese and Chinese passengers, they also carry passengers from other nations and their safety could be affected by the launch of the new routes, Chang said, adding that the council has yet to receive an official response from China.
The nation would take corresponding measures if China ignores those demands, Chang said, without naming specifics.
Asked when China informed Taiwan about the activation of these four routes, CAA Director-General Lin Kuo-hsien (林國顯) said that his agency was not informed about the change until about 8am yesterday, when Chinese aviation officials in Fuzhou and Xiamen contacted air traffic control personnel in Matsu and Kinmen.
China then made an official announcement about the routes at 10am, he said.
Lin said that the 2015 agreement clearly stipulates that the M503 route is only for southbound flights, which in reality should operate 6 nautical miles (11km) west of the route.
If flights have to deviate from the designated route due to inclement weather or other reasons, the flights should move west, he said.
“We have not negotiated over the issues involving northbound flights on the M503 route or the three extension routes, so we want [China] to avoid using them, otherwise our air traffic control officers would not know how to guide the flights in emergency situations,” Lin said.
The W122 route is very close to that used by flights between Taipei and Matsu, while the W123 route could clash with the route used by flights to Kinmen from either Tainan or Kaohsiung, he said.
“The routes are also very close to the radar control towers in Kinmen and Matsu. This is why we need to negotiate on these issues,” Lin said, adding that the CAA had informed the International Civil Aviation Organization and the US about the situation.
Deputy Minister of the Transportation and Communications Frank Fan (范植谷) said that it was unacceptable that China activated the routes without prior negotiations with Taiwan, adding that 80 international and domestic Taiwanese airlines have been notified to not use any of the routes.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS