Nation to continue exercising air control

Air traffic control would urge approaching aircraft not to enter Taiwan’s airspace and remind them to get permission from Taiwanese authorities

Taiwan would continue to exercise its right to control air traffic around its airspace after China unilaterally launched two flight paths in the Taiwan Strait, a key move should the issue undergo international arbitration, a national security source said on Saturday.

China’s Civil Aviation Administration announced late on Friday last week that it would launch the eastbound W122 and W123 flight paths connecting the M503 flight route, which runs north-south down the middle of the Taiwan Strait, to the Chinese cities of Fuzhou and Xiamen, respectively.

The move came after China on Feb. 1 unilaterally canceled an offset along the M503 flight path, which it launched in 2015 without consultations with Taiwan.

The “offset” refers to an agreement reached between Taipei and Beijing in 2015 to move the M503 path 11km to the west of its original location, which came as close as 7.8km to the median line of the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration expressed concern over the W122 and W123 flight paths jeopardizing flight safety given their close proximity to the nation’s Kinmen and Matsu islands, though westbound traffic on those flight paths has been allowed since 2018.

There are dozens of domestic flights operated daily between Taiwan proper and airports in Kinmen and Matsu, which both lie off China’s Fujian Province.

The source said that in addition to lodging protests through appropriate channels, Taiwan’s air traffic controllers would communicate with flights using the W122 and W123 paths to remind them that they should not use those paths without first getting consent from Taiwanese authorities.

In addition, a reminder would also be sent to urge the aircraft not to enter Taiwan’s territorial airspace, the source said.

Although these reminders would not steer the planes away from their paths, such practices serve to counter China’s arbitrary launch of the paths and prevent the paths from becoming a fait accompli, they said.

This would be crucial should Taiwan decide to bring the matter to an international arbitration court.

These practices are paralleled by Japan which routinely documents and announces the almost daily instances of Chinese planes or ships in waters near the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan — a practice which is meant to highlight Japan’s sovereignty over the disputed islands.

Taiwan could consider documenting and announcing instances involving Chinese planes that use the W122 and W123 flight paths, which would be “dealing with uncivilized behavior civilly,” the source said.