China shifts key airline route in new challenge to Taiwan

Taiwan protested China’s unilateral decision to move a commercial flight path closer to the median line in the Taiwan Strait, the latest sign of Beijing’s attempts to ramp up pressure on the democratically-ruled island following elections this month.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China announced Tuesday that it will remove what it called an “offset measure” for a southbound flight route that runs parallel to and west of the median line in the waterway separating Taiwan from China. The new route will come within 4.2 nautical miles (7.8 kilometers) of the median line at its closest point. 

The move — which takes effect Feb. 1 — essentially normalizes the flight of Chinese civilian aircraft closer to Taiwan, which Beijing views as its territory. Taipei sees the shift as part of a pattern of Beijing downgrading the importance of the median line, which has served as an unofficial dividing line between Taiwan and China since the 1950s. 

Beijing’s move “purposely masks its improper political and even military intentions against Taiwan with the package of civil aviation routes,” the island’s Mainland Affairs Council, which helps manage affairs with China, said in a statement Tuesday.  

Beijing has increasingly challenged the validity of the median line by sending sorties of warplanes into sensitive zones, pushing through the median line or flying right along its edge. The sorties wear down Taiwan’s much smaller military and cut the time that it has to react to any attack. China has also regularly floated weather balloons over the island, drawing protests from Taipei.

All those actions have seriously affected regional aviation safety and cross-strait peace and stability, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday, calling on Beijing to consult with Taipei over flight route changes. 

China’s latest decision comes after Taiwan elected the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s Lai Ching-te as its next leader this month, defying warnings from Beijing. China has also continued to lure Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic allies away from it: the government of Nauru severed relations with the island this month, switching its alliance to China. Taiwan’s ties with another Pacific ally, Tuvalu, have been cast into doubt after an election there.

China said the latest move was needed to ease pressure on increasingly busy flight routes, ensure airline safety and reduce travel delays. And an official took aim at the concerns of Taiwan. Chen Binhua, spokesman for Taiwan Affairs Office, said “there’s no such thing as a median line in the Taiwan Strait.”  

Taiwan lodged a “strong protest” over China’s decision and asked it to immediately stop its “irresponsible” aviation operations, according to the Mainland Affairs Council.

In addition to the latest flight route change, China said it also plans to start two new civil aviation routes that will come near the median line. 

Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration said Tuesday that China’s decision “clearly contradicts a consensus reached by the two sides in 2015.” That was the year China agreed to move the flight route six nautical miles to the west of its original path after negotiations with Taiwan, according to a report by Central News Agency.

The last time China announced similar measures without consulting Taiwan was in 2018. Such moves represent deliberate attempts to cause unrest, Taiwan’s MAC said. 

“If China insists on doing this, it must bear any serious consequences affecting cross-strait ties,” Taiwan’s MAC said in its statement.