China Shifts Key Airline Route in New Challenge to Taiwan
- Moves comes after Taiwan elected ruling party leader president
- China’s air force increasingly ignores the median line
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Taiwan protested China’s unilateral decision to move a commercial flight path closer to the median line in the Taiwan Strait, the latest sign of Beijing’s attempts to ramp up pressure on the democratically-ruled island following elections this month.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China announced Tuesday that it will remove what it called an “offset measure” for a southbound flight route that runs parallel to and west of the median line in the waterway separating Taiwan from China. The new route will come within 4.2 nautical miles (7.8 kilometers) of the median line at its closest point.