China opens 3rd extension to sensitive Taiwan Strait flight path
HONG KONG (Reuters) -- China's civil aviation authority said on Sunday it has opened a third extension of the M503 flight route, which has for years been the subject of complaints from Taipei due to its position just west of an unofficial dividing line in the Taiwan Strait.
China last year moved the M503 route closer to the median line, drawing an angry response from Taipei, which said Beijing was trying to "package" civil aviation for political or military considerations to potentially change the strait's status quo.
The opening of the W121 extension comes days before the annual Han Kuang military and civil defense drills that Taiwan holds to simulate a Chinese blockade and invasion of the democratic island.
The median line had for years served as an unofficial barrier between Chinese-claimed Taiwan and China, but China says it does not recognize its existence and Chinese warplanes now regularly fly over it as Beijing seeks to pressure Taipei to accept its sovereignty claims.
The Civil Aviation Authority of China said that "in order to further optimize the airspace environment and improve operational efficiency, from now on, civil aviation will use the W121 connection line of the M503 route."
Taiwan's China policy-making Mainland Affairs Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is the third extension after W122 and W123, which are to the south of W121, opened last year. All three go west to east, from mainland China in the direction of Taiwan.
"This measure is aimed at "ensuring flight safety, reducing flight delays, and protecting the rights and interests of passengers," China's Taiwan Affairs Office said.
It added that the opening was "beneficial" to both sides of the strait.
Taiwan, which is facing ramped-up military pressure from China, which considers the separately governed island as its own, begins its Han Kuang exercises on July 9 and they are set to last for 10 days.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
3 hours ago
- Japan Today
In reversal, Japan now wants rice farmers to produce more. Will it work?
By Kaori Kaneko For more than half a century, the Japanese government has encouraged its rice farmers to grow less of the crop so that prices of the national staple grain remained relatively high and steady. Now, under an ambitious agricultural policy announced this year, Tokyo is preparing for a reversal, envisaging a future of bountiful output that would secure the country's food security without sending prices into freefall and hurting its politically influential farmers. The new direction has taken on an unexpected urgency as Japanese grapple with a shortage of the all-important staple, which has prompted a historic spike in prices, a flood of imports, and interest from President Donald Trump, who has renewed pressure on Japan to buy U.S. rice as part of the allies' elusive trade deal. Kazuhachi Hosaka looks at his rice farm in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture. Image: REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon It is a policy that many farmers like Kazuhachi Hosaka welcome in principle, but with trepidation because questions over how it would work in practice remain unanswered. The government is aiming to complete a roadmap by the middle of next year. "We'd want the government to make sure there's some kind of a safety net for producers," Hosaka said at his farm in the northern prefecture of Niigata. "It's easy enough to switch rice for feed or processed foods to staple rice. But tilling land for new paddies or switching from wheat or soybeans would require labour, machinery and all kinds of investments." This year, Hosaka allocated all but 10 hectares (25 acres) of his 180-hectare land for staple rice, reducing feed-use rice by 20 hectares given the attractive prices. But he worries that prices could plunge if Japan's overall production goes unchecked under the new policy, set to be implemented from the 2027 crop year. "I do feel conflicted," Hosaka said about the doubling of retail rice prices to above 4,000 yen for a 5kg bag this year in what has turned into a national crisis. "It's important that rice prices settle at levels acceptable to both producers and consumers," he said. Hosaka hopes prices would stabilise around 3,000 to 3,500 yen - a level Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba also hopes would be palatable for voters. Supermarket prices fell for a fifth straight week, to 3,801 yen in the seven days to June 22, but were still 70% higher than the same period last year. Rice paddies in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture Image: REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon NATIONAL CRISIS For Japanese people, rice is more than just a staple food. Cultivated in the country for more than 2,000 years, rice is considered sacred in the indigenous Shinto religion and is deeply ingrained in local tradition and culture. The Japanese are famously proud of their short-grain Japonica variety, protecting the market with trade barriers. So when rice turned into a luxury item this year, consumers fumed and policymakers - facing imminent elections - worried. With an eye on voters ahead of an upper house election on July 20, the government has been releasing emergency rice from its stockpile to sell for about 2,000 yen per 5 kg. Farmers - also traditionally an important voting bloc for Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party - were told it was a dire but necessary move to protect Japan's food security and prevent consumers from switching permanently away from homegrown rice. But for most of the past 50 years, Japan has poured its energy into doing the opposite: providing subsidies to farmers to grow crops other than staple rice so as to prevent oversupply and a fall in prices. That system backfired last year when the farm ministry misread supply from the heat-damaged 2023 harvest, resulting in a severe shortage in August. The ensuing surge in prices made Japan an anomaly against a fall in global prices, and exposed the risks of its approach. The new policy, if successful, would prevent a recurrence by allocating 350,000 tons of rice for export in 2030 - an eight-fold jump from 45,000 tons last year - that could be redirected to the domestic market in the event of a shortage, the government says. Some agricultural experts say the policy is unrealistic. The idea of selling expensive Japanese rice abroad is counterintuitive, especially when even Japan is importing record amounts of the grain despite the 341 yen per kg levy that had previously priced foreign products out of the market. Japanese have also acquired a taste for U.S. Calrose rice, while imports from Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam have also been popular with businesses and cost-conscious consumers. "Expensive rice might sell to niche markets, but getting that up to 350,000 tons would require price competitiveness, and there's a long way for that," said Kazunuki Ohizumi, professor emeritus at Miyagi University and an expert on agricultural management. The government aims to provide some form of support but also expects farmers to make their own efforts to consolidate, and make use of artificial intelligence and other technologies to lower production costs. Meanwhile, Hosaka said, prices of fertilizers, pesticides and fuel have shot up, sending production costs through the roof. "It's tough," he said. "The government has released quite a bit of stockpiled rice, so I'm very worried about prices falling even further." © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Japan Today
3 hours ago
- Japan Today
South Korea prosecutors file request to detain ex-President Yoon
South Korea's former President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives at Seoul High Prosecutor's Office to attend questioning after being summoned as part of a probe by a special prosecutor into his botched attempt to declare martial law, in Seoul, South Korea, June 28, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Soo-hyeon/File Photo By Cynthia Kim and Ju-min Park South Korean special prosecutors filed a new request on Sunday to detain former President Yoon Suk Yeol, a day after he appeared before them for questioning over his declaration of martial law last year. Yoon, who is facing a criminal trial on insurrection charges over the martial law declaration in December, was arrested in January after resisting authorities trying to take him into custody, but was released after 52 days on technical grounds. "Detention request is related to allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of justice," the special prosecutors investigating the declaration said in a statement. The spokesperson for the special prosecutors declined to elaborate when asked why the detention request was submitted, saying they would explain it in court proceedings to decide on whether it should be granted. Yoon's lawyers said in a statement that the special prosecutors had not provided credible evidence for the charges they were seeking, and his legal team would "explain in court that the request for an arrest warrant is unreasonable". Yoon has been accused of mobilizing presidential guards to stop authorities from arresting him in January, but the court has previously dismissed the request for an arrest warrant after Yoon had initially refused to appear for questioning. Yoon was ousted in April by the Constitutional Court, which upheld his impeachment by parliament for a martial law bid that shocked a country that had prided itself on becoming a thriving democracy after overcoming military dictatorship in the 1980s. The December 3 decree had been lifted after about six hours when lawmakers, who had been forced to scale the walls of the assembly building to make it through a ring of security forces, voted the decree down. The former president is fighting the charges against him that include masterminding insurrection, which is punishable by death or life in prison. He rejects the allegations. The special prosecutor was appointed just days after liberal President Lee Jae-myung took office on June 4, following his victory in a snap election called after Yoon's ouster, and leads a team of more than 200 lawyers and investigators. Yoon attended hours of questioning by prosecutors on Saturday. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Japan Today
3 hours ago
- Japan Today
Israel sends delegation to Qatar for Gaza talks ahead of Netanyahu trip to U.S.
Smoke rises in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 5, 2025. REUTERS/Amir Cohen An Israeli delegation left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to head to Washington to meet U.S. President Donald Trump. Public pressure is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire and end the war in Gaza, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. Others, including Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, have expressed support. Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a "positive spirit", a few days after Trump said Israel had agreed "to the necessary conditions to finalize" a 60-day truce. But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals. Netanyahu's office also said in a statement that changes sought by Hamas to the ceasefire proposal were "not acceptable to Israel". However, his office said the delegation would still fly to Qatar to "continue efforts to secure the return of our hostages based on the Qatari proposal that Israel agreed to". Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump on Monday, has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a demand the militant group has so far refused to discuss. HOSTAGES On Saturday evening, crowds gathered at a public square in Tel Aviv near the defence ministry headquarters to call for a ceasefire deal and the return of around 50 hostages still held in Gaza. The demonstrators waved Israeli flags, chanted and carried posters with photos of the hostages. Some family members of those held in Gaza who had joined the protests said they were concerned that the deal might not return all the hostages immediately. "I think unfortunately, it's going to be a partial deal, but what Prime Minister Netanyahu and all the team keep on saying is that (it) is not a partial deal," said Dalia Cusnir, the sister-in-law of one of the hostages. "We are afraid but we understand that if this is what we have and this is how we can save lives, we will embrace it and hope and keep working so all the hostages are back," she added. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's retaliatory military assault on the enclave has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, displaced the population, mostly within Gaza, and left the territory in ruins. Around 20 of the remaining hostages are believed to be still alive. A majority of the original hostages have been freed through diplomatic negotiations, though the Israeli military has also recovered some. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
