China Announces New Aviation Routes Near Taiwan's Airspace, Escalating Tensions

China announces new aviation routes near Taiwan's restricted airspace around Kinmen and Matsu islands, escalating tensions as flights will operate closer to the median line separating Taiwan and China's air spaces.

The Civil Aviation Authority of China has made a fresh announcement to open new air routes at the brink of the restricted airspace around the Taiwan-controlled islands of Kinmen and Matsu, thereby adding more fuel to the rift along the Taiwan Strait.

These new routes, operating between Xiamen and Fuzhou cities, will make Chinese planes come to the unacceptable M503 flight path area, which is the air space boundary between Taiwan and China. Therefore, this decision theoretically raises the probability of a misunderstanding or even a mistake in a highly sensitive area.

Taiwan is extremely worried about the consequences of the flight path change, with the spokesman for the Mainland Affairs Council saying it would make flying around Kinmen and Matsu very dangerous. It was only in the westward direction that flights had previously operated in this area with the aim of maintaining coordination and preventing conflicts.

The announcement comes out at a time when China has already used the "grey zone" coercion tactics against Taiwan. This includes sending military aircraft and shipping to patrolling into the air and water surrounding Taiwan in order to take China's sovereignty claims.

This only happened during the last month, when Taiwan registered 136 incursions by Chinese aircraft and 98 incursions by the naval fleets around the island. The situation in Kinmen is extremely tense. This is because China has denounced the unofficially accepted boundaries and carried out incursions into Taiwanese-controlled waters.

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While Beijing always regards Taiwan as a part of its territory and would use force if necessary to bring Taiwan under China's control, independence is the only option for Taiwan. The Taiwanese government has promised to make sure that the island will always have freedom and democracy.

The declaration of the new airways is another example of the increased tension across the strait and intensifies the risk of a serious incident or a wrong interpretation by air forces which are operating in the neighbourhood of Taiwan's archipelago islands. Regional powers have appealed to the parties to keep themselves calm and to maintain communication channels amid this crisis.