Beijing yesterday reduced a flight restriction period it announced within the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) from three days to less than 30 minutes following protests from Taiwanese civil aviation officials, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
The Chinese Civil Aviation Administration on Tuesday notified the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) that it would set up a flight restriction zone within the Taipei FIR to engage in “aeronautic activities” between 9am and 2pm from Sunday to Tuesday next week, the ministry said.
The notice was sent only one day after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army ended military exercises around Taiwan. China launched the drills after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) met with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California on Wednesday last week.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications
Taiwan regulates the air traffic inside the Taipei FIR, which is a hub for northbound and southbound flight routes in East Asia and a main gateway to the northwest Pacific, the ministry said.
“However, China unilaterally set up a flight restriction zone spanning multiple flight routes within the Taipei FIR over three days. Not only is the move unprecedented in the international community, but it would also disrupt flight management in the region and affect flight safety,” it said.
The ministry notified Chinese officials that “such a unilateral and unreasonable move will pose tremendous and unnecessary flight risks, and affect international flights passing through the region.”
It said it protested the move and asked Chinese officials to change their plans.
China yesterday notified Taiwan that its aeronautic activities had been rescheduled to between 9:30am and 9:57am on Sunday, the ministry said.
Reuters reported that Beijing has told Seoul that a falling object related to a launch vehicle is set to land north of Taiwan in a 27-minute window on Sunday, citing a South Korean official.
“As a responsible member of the international community, we will coordinate with civil aviation officials in other countries to make necessary adjustments to flight routes and ensure flight safety,” it said.
The ministry also showed on a map the area where the aeronautic activities would be held.
The Ministry of National Defense said the area is about 85 nautical miles (157km) off the north coast of Taiwan.
A Reuters report estimated that Beijing’s decision could affect 60 to 70 percent of flights between East Asia and Southeast Asia.
EVA Airways and China Airlines said they would follow instructions from the CAA and adjust their flight routes if necessary.
Taoyuan International Airport Corp said it is monitoring flight control information and has reserved aircraft parking space in case of an emergency.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS