The government has made its stance on China’s unilateral activation of northbound flights on aviation route M503 known to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) personally and via several diplomatic allies, but has yet to receive a response, a government source with knowledge of the matter said.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue, said Beijing was required by ICAO regulations to coordinate with affected parties before launching new routes, but it failed to do so before unilaterally activating northbound flights on M503 and three new extension routes — W121, W122 and W123 — along China’s southeast coast on Thursday last week.
Under Item 4.2.6 of the ICAO’s Air Traffic Services Planning Manual, changes to any route should be made only after it has been coordinated with all parties concerned.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of the Presidential Office
“The ICAO has been made aware of the matter... However, the organization is reluctant to intervene, but we still have to let our stance be known,” the source said, adding that as Taiwan is not a member of the UN agency on civil aviation matters, “our voice can hardly be heard.”
Asked whether the government planned to take further action, the source said that several ICAO member states friendly to Taiwan have spoken out in its favor, but declined to reveal whether he was referring to the US and Japan.
“We have also notified all our representative offices overseas to relay the government’s hope to other nations that their airlines refrain from using the controversial M503 route,” the source added.
Due to Chinese pressure, Taiwan has been excluded from the triennial ICAO assembly, except in 2013, when warmer cross-strait ties under then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) paved way for the nation’s attendance at the conference as a “guest.”
In January 2015, after receiving approval from the ICAO, China announced the activation of the M503 route — which, at its nearest point, is 7.8km from the Taiwan Strait’s median line — and the three extension routes, prompting protests from Taipei.
Following cross-strait negotiations an agreement was reached in March 2015 that China would only operate southbound flights on M503 and put the launch of the three extension routes on hold.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) yesterday told a news conference in Taipei that as the matter pertains to aviation routes, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications was in close contact with the ICAO.
“As a news release issued after a national security meeting chaired by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Sunday stated, the foreign ministry should initiate international campaigns and engage with foreign governments to secure the support of other nations and win the battle for international public opinion,” Lee said. “We will continue with such efforts.”
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS