News / China

China airways hit by Taiwan ‘threat’ claim

Monday, 02 March 2015 4:59 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 02 March 2015 4:59 PM ]

File photo shows an Airbus super jumbo A380 passenger jet landing in Taiwan.

China has temporarily pulled planned operating of four airways near Taiwan after the island said the move constituted a potential air defense threat.

Taiwanese officials reported the postponement of the plan on Monday. The island’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said the opening of the routes, originally set for Thursday, would now be delayed pending further negotiations.

“The two sides agreed that the...flight routes will be postponed,” the CAA said in a statement, with more discussions planned.

“We feel negotiations have been positive and we support the solution of problems through mutual trust and rational negotiations, as well as efforts to safeguard peace and development across the Taiwan Strait,” it said.

Taiwan has slammed as “unacceptable” the move, which enables aircraft to fly from China’s coastal province of Zhejiang and the cities of Fuzhou and Xiamen in Fujian Province over the Taiwan Strait.

Chinese authorities have, however, said the airways would ease air traffic.

Taiwan split from China in 1949 after a civil war, but Beijing says it expects a reunion even by force.

Cross-strait ties improved since Ma Ying-jeou (pictured below) from the China-friendly Kuomintang party came to power in Taipei in 2008. He was reelected in 2012.

Chen Deming, the president of China’s quasi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, visited Taipei last December in a bid to enhance Beijing’s growing political and economic ties with Taipei.

HN/HSN/SS

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