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BEIJING: China plans to open a new commercial aviation route through the Taiwan Strait in a move that officials in Taipei said was a threat to regional peace and a danger to air safety.The new route between Hong Kong and Shanghai would track just inside the Chinese side of the unofficial dividing line through the middle of the Taiwan Strait, an area that both sides have mostly avoided since the 1950s, security and aviation specialists in Taiwan said.The United States, Taiwan's closest military ally, has been drawn into the dispute and has held talks about the proposed route with Beijing and Taipei, according to U.S. and Taiwanese officials.In the final New Year's Day address of his second and final term, President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan said last week that the new air route was part of China's efforts to expand the boundary of its airspace at the island's expense."In doing so, China is once again challenging and attempting to unilaterally change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait," Chen said.China is continuing a rapid military buildup opposite Taiwan that Taipei and Washington have said poses a growing threat to the island's security.Security officials in Taiwan said that regular commercial aviation services along or near the dividing line would constrain the training and operations of the island's military, particularly its air force, which would be Taiwan's first line of defense in a conflict with the mainland."It is a grave concern to people on our side," said Andrew Yang, secretary general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, an independent security policy institute based in Taipei. "Taiwan is trying to alert the U.S. and other countries to what we interpret as a very provocative and intimidating action in the Taiwan Strait area."In Beijing, the State Council, or cabinet, and the Central Military Commission, or the top military decision-making body, approved the new air route off the southeast coast, according to a Dec. 5 statement on the Web site of the General Administration of Civil Aviation that did not give specific details of the flight path.The Chinese military has ultimate control over the country's airspace.The statement said that Chinese aviation officials were working on finalizing navigation arrangements, communications and coordination with Hong Kong and Taipei."And, because Taiwan authorities are involved in the process of regulation and coordination, all stakeholders have to remain active in overcoming the various difficulties," the statement quoted the deputy director of China's Air Traffic Management Bureau, Wang Liya, as telling a meeting of mainland aviation officials in Shanghai on Nov. 26.Pressure from domestic and international carriers may have been a factor in Beijing's decision to approve the new route.Only 30 percent of Chinese airspace is available for civil aviation, according to the International Air Transport Association, a trade group based in Montreal that represents more than 240 carriers. The group has been urging Beijing to expand its tightly controlled flight corridors.Increased congestion in the fastest-growing major aviation market in the world, particularly in the so-called golden triangle routes connecting Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, has led to costly delays at these major airports.Crowded skies over the Pearl River Delta also cause up to 25 minutes' extra flying time for flights approaching Hong Kong from the north, with Chinese carriers most affected, according to the aviation authority. Albert Tjoeng, an association spokesman based in Singapore, said the group did not have specific information about the new route, so it was unable to gauge whether it would ease congestion. Despite complaints from carriers, the Chinese military has been extremely reluctant to expand civil aviation corridors over the mainland.In answer to a question about Taiwan's objections to the new route, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council, Li Weiyi, said at a news conference in Beijing on Dec. 26 that he was unfamiliar with the issue.A senior U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not cleared to discuss the issue, said that the Bush administration had held talks with the authorities in Beijing and Taipei on the proposed route. He declined to comment on the details of the discussions but said the United States had an interest in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the safety of international civil aviation.Beijing's move comes at a time of heightened tension between the two sides as Taiwan prepares for legislative elections Saturday and a controversial presidential poll in March.To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
