US representatives yesterday made comments on Twitter in support of Taiwan regarding China’s unilateral announcement of new flight routes in the Taiwan Strait.
Beijing unilaterally announced the launch of the M503 northbound route on Jan. 4 without consulting Taiwan. The route is only 4.2 nautical miles, or approximately 7.8km, west of the median line of the Taiwan Strait at its closest point.
Three Chinese east-west extension routes also introduced on Jan. 4 — designated W121, W122 and W123 — overlap with Taiwan’s W6, W8 and W2 flight routes, which serve the outlying islands of Matsu and Kinmen, raising aviation safety concerns.
Photo: Chen Yi-chia, Taipei Times
“China’s new flight routes around Taiwan, activated without consulting Taipei, threaten aviation security and the cross-strait status quo,” tweeted US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who previously served as the chairwoman of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
“Our admin must lodge a strong complaint with Beijing and the International Civil Aviation Organization, making clear that these unilateral provocations endanger regional stability,” Ros-Lehtinen added.
“China unilaterally expanding air routes near Taiwan without consulting Taiwanese authorities harms the longstanding cross-strait status quo,” US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee tweeted. “Any decision involving activity across the strait should be decided by both countries.”
The nation’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) on Friday expressed “strong regret” over China’s condemnation of Taiwan’s move to put extra cross-strait flights for the Lunar New Year holiday on hold amid a dispute over the controversial M503 route.
In a statement on its official Web site, the Civil Aviation Administration of China condemned Taiwan’s move to delay approval of applications by two China-based airlines to operate extra flights in protest of China’s decision to launch a northbound M503 route.
The M503 route and its extension routes were approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization and entail “no safety concerns,” it said.
It also said Taiwan’s act of “revenge against China” would eventually hurt airlines and people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait — the rights of Taiwanese in particular — and that “the Taiwanese authority should take full responsibility for all the consequences.”
In response, the CAA on Friday night issued a statement titled “If there is no trust and no aviation safety, what’s the point of talking about the rights of Taiwanese business people?”
The CAA urged China to start negotiations with Taiwan as soon as possible, in line with an agreement reached by the two sides in 2015.
The CAA on Thursday said it has put on hold applications by China Eastern and Xiamen Air to fly a total of 176 additional cross-strait flights during the holiday period from Feb. 15 to 20, in response to China’s launch of the M503 route, which Taiwan considers a threat to aviation safety.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS