Chinese military incursions into Taiwan’s airspace pose a threat to aviation safety in the region, making it imperative for Taipei to be included in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), government officials said on Monday.
While some might think that Taiwan’s wish to join the ICAO is a political goal, recent developments in the Taiwan Strait show that international civil aviation safety transcends politics and is vital to the safety of all air passengers, Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) said prior to the ICAO Assembly in Montreal.
Taiwan has not been invited to ICAO meetings since 2013, and it has been left out of this year’s assembly, which began yesterday at the organization’s headquarters and is to run until Friday next week.
Photo: Reuters
The military exercises that China launched following US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei last month posed a severe threat to the Taipei flight information region’s (FIR) security, Tseng told a news conference on Monday.
The international community should understand that China’s military exercises clearly contravened ICAO regulations, and compromised the aviation safety of Taiwan and neighboring countries, he said.
That the drills were held so close to Taiwan proper constituted a major development, which should be discussed at the ICAO Assembly, Tseng said.
Tseng is part of a government delegation campaigning in Montreal for Taiwan’s inclusion in the ICAO.
Civil Aeronautics Administration Deputy Director-General Lin Jiunn-liang (林俊良), who is leading the delegation, said Taiwan is the sole managing authority of the Taipei FIR, which provided services to 72 million passengers in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taiwanese commercial airlines rank among the best in the world and Taiwan is willing to contribute to global aviation safety, Lin said, appealing for the country’s inclusion in the ICAO.
The delegation on Monday held bilateral discussions with representatives of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and like-minded countries.
Paraguayan National Directorate of Civil Aviation head Felix Kanazawa said it is essential to support Taiwan’s bid to join the ICAO as an observer.
Saint Lucia Consul General to Canada Henry Mangal said the diplomatic ally plans to advocate for Taiwan’s membership in the ICAO.
GREATER NUMBER: The sorties might have been a response to the US and the EU expressing concern on Friday over China’s ‘provocations’ in the Taiwan Strait Twenty-five Chinese military aircraft and four naval ships were detected around Taiwan from 6am Saturday to 6am yesterday, including eight airplanes that had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and another two that entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft that entered Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ were a Y-8 anti-submarine plane and a BZK-005 uncrewed aerial vehicle, the Ministry of National Defense said. The aircraft that flew across the median line include two Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, four J-16 multipurpose fighters and two J-10 jets, the ministry’s official Web site showed. Taiwan’s armed forces monitored the
The building of a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) plant in Phoenix, Arizona, is expected to lead to the creation of a “Little Taipei” over the coming year, as TSMC employees and related companies move in, a Phoenix-based real-estate agent has said. TSMC is investing US$12 billion to build a wafer plant in northern Phoenix that is scheduled to begin mass production in 2024. The company on Tuesday held a “tool-in” ceremony to mark the installation of the first batch of equipment at the fab. Some TSMC employees have moved into newly constructed apartments in a community 10 minutes’ drive from the
LUNAR NEW YEAR PEAK: Taiwanese who are in China should get vaccinated and consider returning early, as infection rates are expected to increase, the CECC said China faces five major problems once COVID-19 begins spreading there, with a peak in infections likely during the Lunar New Year holidays, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), said yesterday. Wang wrote on Facebook that according to the center’s data, the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in China is worth noting, as the new Omicron subvariants BF.7 and BA.5.2 spreading in China are highly infectious and are more transmissible than the previously dominating Omicron subvariants. “The virus cannot be eliminated even under China’s strict control measures,” he wrote. “Its policy
TWO RISKIEST SPOTS: People living in Taitung County received 20 earthquake alerts over the past 12 months, while Hualien County placed second with 17 alerts Taitung County residents received national earthquake alerts on their mobile phones more frequently over the past year than people in other parts of Taiwan, Central Weather Bureau data showed. Between Nov. 20 last year and Nov. 20, Taitung residents topped other administrative regions with 20 earthquake alerts. They were followed by Hualien County residents who received 17 alerts and Chiayi County residents who received 11, the bureau said. Residents in Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties did not receive a single earthquake alert, it said. The bureau shared the data on Facebook for the first time since the government connected the earthquake warning
RSS