TAIPEI (REUTERS) - A dispute with China over its opening of new air routes near Taiwan will determine future relations between Taipei and Beijing, Taiwan's government said amid a deepening disagreement that could strand thousands over an important holiday.
The spat has become increasingly bitter, with both sides trading accusations after two Chinese airlines cancelled extra flights to Taiwan over the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar, potentially leaving thousands of Taiwanese without tickets to go home.
"The people's eyes are sharp. Whether this disputed issue can be resolved is an important indicator of how Taiwan people will view the future direction of relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait," Taiwan's China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement late Wednesday (Jan 31).
"We again call on the Chinese side to treasure the hard won peace and stability of relations between the two sides. China needs to carry out measures to make up for this deficiency, in order to avoid this issue continuing to grow and ferment."
China opened several new air routes last month (January), including a northbound route up the sensitive Taiwan Strait that divides China from the island. Taiwan says it was done without its agreement, contravening what the democratic government in Taipei has said was a 2015 deal to first discuss such flight paths.
In response, self-governed Taiwan has withheld approval of routine applications from China Eastern and Xiamen Airlines, majority owned by China Southern Airlines , to add Lunar New Year flights because the airlines had used the disputed air routes.
Taiwan has expressed concern the new routes are too close to existing routes that link it to airports on two groups of Taiwan-controlled islands lying close to China - Kinmen which sits opposite to the Chinese city of Xiamen and the Matsu archipelago near to Fuzhou.
Multiple daily flights connect the islands to mainland Taiwan, while Xiamen and Fuzhou are also busy airports.
Kinmen and Matsu have both been under Taiwan's control since defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
Frequently shelled by the Chinese during the height of the Cold War, both are now popular tourist destinations and connected to China by ferry. Kinmen's airport is the busiest, with regular though less frequent flights to Matsu's two airports from Taiwan.
China considers Taiwan a wayward province, and relations have cooled dramatically since Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party took office as Taiwan's president in 2016.
