Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Maarten Visser/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 2.0
ATTEMPTS BY THE Chinese government to constrain Taiwan’s international space using flight routes continue. The latest such case is with regard to the Chinese government unilaterally announcing the W121 flight route, which extends the M503 flight route that was previously an object of contention by linking it to Dongshan in Zhejiang. The W121 flight route is a west-to-east route, and it will now be linked to the M503 flight route, which is a north-to-south route.
The Taiwanese government has urged that talks be opened regarding the route. This is not likely to take place, however, in that China has increasingly disregarded Taiwan when it comes to announcing flight routes. Spokespersons for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office claim that the new flight route will strengthen connections between Taiwan and China, though as Taiwanese authorities have pointed out, W121 is not, in fact, a cross-strait flight route.
The M503 flight route has been the object of political contestation between Taiwan and China on several occasions. In 2024, the Chinese government announced that it would be ending “offset measures” for the M503 flight route, which would bring the route closer to the median line of the Taiwan Strait. In this sense, the shifting of the M503 flight route took place as part of efforts by China to emphasize claims over the Taiwan Strait, as well as to push closer to the median line of the Taiwan Strait.
Indeed, incursions by Chinese warplanes into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) already take place on a near-daily basis. The ADIZ is the airspace near a country where planes normally identify themselves for security purposes. Though historically, Chinese warplanes adhered to the median line of the Taiwan Strait, in recent years, they have begun to disregard this.
The air incursions serve several purposes. For one, they serve to probe at and wear down Taiwan’s defenses. This is particularly the case, seeing as Taiwan scrambles its own fighters in response to such Chinese air incursions, which wear down Taiwan’s airframes, costing expenditure to repair and in terms of the cost of fuel. Moreover, the air incursions provide training for Chinese fighter pilots for future wartime scenarios and serve as a means of psychological warfare directed at Taiwan.
In this sense, China’s shift in the M503 flight route was a means of using civilian aircraft to reinforce claims otherwise backed by military intimidation, as well as to further pressure Taiwan’s air force. Other means by which China has sought to pressure or intimidate Taiwan include dispatching balloons over Taiwan or firing rockets that pass over Taiwanese airspace.
In 2015, it was still possible for Taiwan to negotiate with China over flight routes, with the Chinese government agreeing to move the M503 flight route west by eleven kilometers so that it would not pass so close to the median line of the Taiwan Straits. This would be due to the possibility of mishaps occurring due to civilian aircraft passing close to the median line. But the Chinese government is clearly unwilling to dialogue with a DPP political administration at present.
With the new flight route, air traffic controllers would have only thirty seconds to respond to planes crossing over the median line of the Taiwan Strait due to inclement weather or other reasons. It may not be surprising that security experts have warned that the extension of W121 is intended to erode away at Taiwan’s airspace, with an aim at deteriorating Taiwan’s security, and that it was deliberately announced shortly before the Han Kuang exercises. The attempt, too, is to frame the DPP as an aggressor against China, in framing the extension of the flight route as to improve cross-strait transportation links.
China’s unilateral declaration of flight routes raises the point of how Taiwan is currently excluded from international bodies regulating air traffic safety, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Taiwan has called attention to its exclusion in past years, citing the high volume of air traffic that passes around or through Taiwan. Along with the World Health Organization (WHO), the ICAO is one of the United Nations bodies that Taiwan most frequently has tried to campaign for inclusion, citing the large amount of air traffic that passes through Taiwan and that Taiwan’s exclusion from the ICAO is dangerous for international air traffic safety.
Still, it is to be seen if China continues with such actions, specifically pertaining to the M503 flight route, or more broadly. In April of last year, China stated that it would extend not only the W122 and W123 flight routes by linking them to the M503 flight route. Previous times in which China sought to pressure Taiwan by way of the M503 flight route also occurred in 2015 and 2018.