US lawmakers urge ICAO to oppose China move to extend flight route near Taiwan

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of US lawmakers on Aug 22 urged the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to oppose China’s decision to unilaterally extend a flight route in the Taiwan Strait.

“This action places civilian aircraft dangerously close to Taiwan-administered airspace,” said the letter signed by Senators Gary Peters and Marsha Blackburn and Representative John Moolenaar, a Republican who chairs a House select committee on China and the panel’s ranking Democrat Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi.

They added that the “unilateral changes disregard international aviation procedures and ICAO’s own standards, which emphasise the importance of coordination and risk mitigation in shared airspace”.

ICAO and the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment. The call comes weeks before the start of the assembly of the UN body overseeing civilian aviation that occurs every three years.

The lawmakers also urged ICAO to allow Taiwan to meaningfully participate as a guest in the assembly.

In July, China said it opened a third extension of the M503 flight route, which is just west of an unofficial dividing line in the Taiwan Strait, with Taipei protesting this was a “unilateral” move aimed at changing the strait’s status quo.

China in 2024 moved the M503 route closer to the median line, drawing a similarly angry response from Taipei, which says any changes to the flight route and its extensions must be communicated in advance and agreed to by both sides.

In 2022, then US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called on ICAO to allow Taiwan to participate in the ICAO meetings.

China sees democratically ruled Taiwan as one of its provinces. Beijing has long vowed to bring Taiwan under its control and has not ruled out the use of force to do so.

Taiwan considers the separately governed island as its own and says only the island's 23 million people can decide its future. REUTERS