Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) legislators yesterday occupied the legislative speaker’s podium to protest against China’s unilateral establishment of an air route close to the median line of the Taiwan Strait and the government agreeing to China’s “trial flights” before the route is implemented.
The Mainland Affairs Council and the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) on Monday night announced that Chinese air route M503, unilaterally announced by Beijing on Jan. 12 and just 7.8km from the median line at its nearest point, would be moved 6 nautical miles (11km) to the west and its implementation be delayed until China conducted test flights along the path.
Three feeder routes — W121, W122 and W123 — are to be temporarily frozen, they said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“We are not satisfied with the conclusion, but on the basis of maintaining flight safety and national security, we are settling for [the unsatisfactory resolution],” Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) told the legislature yesterday morning.
When pressed by reporters to describe what he found unsatisfactory, Mao said that China moving the proposed route farther west would be a better outcome.
While a nation may establish new air routes in its flight information region, it is obligated to negotiate with neighboring nations, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said, citing regulations set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Hsia added that the implementation date for the M503 air route would be renegotiated after Beijing gathers information during its trial flights, saying that “trial flights” are not a “trial operation.”
TSU legislators occupied the podium before the question-and-answer session on the Cabinet’s policy report, shouting denunciations against Beijing’s establishment of the routes and Taipei’s approval of the trial flights.
The routes were “unilaterally set” and “put [Taiwan’s] flight safety at risk,” they said.
If Taiwan acquiesced after China arbitrarily established the routes without prior notice and negotiation, “there will be no end to it” in the future, TSU caucus whip Lai Cheng-chang (賴振昌) said.
Lai later questioned Mao’s “settling for” the unsatisfactory conclusion, asking the premier how he could be certain that Chinese aircraft would not fly eastward or that other routes would not be established east of M503 in the future.
“It is not possible that [China] would establish other air routes east of the M503,” Mao said.
Beijing has promised that the aircraft on the M503 route would move to the west if they must deviate from the course during emergencies, he said, adding that Beijing also assured Taipei that the routes are to be for civil aviation, and that “Chinese fighter jets would not be entering the region.”
“It is a plus to our national security,” he added.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said China’s revised M503 route was unacceptable.
Moving the M503 route farther west without canceling it still endangers national security, DPP spokesman Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said on Monday night.
Beijing’s unilateral move to open new flight routes without first negotiating them with Taipei infringes on Taiwan’s flight security, national security and sovereignty, while violating the spirit of international civil aviation conventions, he said.
The DPP objected to Beijing’s move and called for the government to take action to safeguard the nation’s interests, he said.
All major cross-strait issues require considerable negotiation and understanding between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to maintain peace and stability in the region, he said.
Meanwhile, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General David Lo (羅紹和) told a news conference in Taipei that the military has response measures in place and will closely monitor aircraft flying over the Taiwan Strait to ensure national safety.
Military air patrols will continue to protect Taiwan’s airspace, and those patrols and combat training in the area will not be affected by China’s planned flight routes, Lo said.
He said the military is capable of effectively monitoring all aircraft near the Strait and denied a report that cited an unnamed military official as saying that China’s new flight routes could overburden Taiwan’s air defenses.
Since direct flights between Taiwan and China were launched in 2008, the defense ministry has been able to monitor all 280,000 civilian aircraft, including 140,000 Chinese planes, crossing the Strait.
The ministry has rigorous monitoring measures and will continue its efforts to safeguard the nation, he said.
“The military is able and is confident of ensuring the safety of Taiwan’s air space,” Lo said.
Meanwhile, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) told a news conference at the Shanghai Area Control Center that Taiwan should not politicize the route issue.
The M503 route has no strategic value in military terms, Ma said.
To delay implementation of the M503 route is the most friendly gesture Beijing could make, Chinese Air Traffic Management Bureau Director Che Jin-jun (車進軍) said, adding that the route is a “peace line” between Taiwan and China.
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)