[Text: Observer Network columnist Zhang Zhonglin].
On January 30, the Civil Aviation Administration of China announced that it would cancel the flight bias of the M503 route from north to south from February 1, and enable the west-to-east operation of the W122 and W123 connecting routes of the M503 route to improve the efficiency of airspace operation.
The announcement by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has aroused a strong reaction from the Taiwan authorities on both sides of the strait, saying that this is "an improper attempt to use civil aviation packaging to deal with Taiwan's politics and even military." Some Taiwan experts said that this is "an attempt to erase the existence of the 'middle line of the strait,' which is tantamount to using technical means to negate the restricted navigation zone set up in accordance with its own laws, and has the meaning of legal warfare."
Why is the use of an ordinary route specially announced? Why did the Taiwan authorities react so strongly? What's so amazing about this M503 route?
On February 1, China's civil aviation has used the new route for flights.
Let's start with the M503 route.
Since the 21st century, with the rapid development of China's economy, China's civil aviation market has also grown rapidly, and the growth of the eastern coastal areas is particularly fast. As a result, the airspace resources in the eastern coastal areas, which were already stretched, suddenly became extremely tight, and due to the dense routes and the concentration of aircraft, flow control and delays occurred frequently. The route was overwhelmed by the large number of aircraft that flew intensively on the A470 route along the land side of the eastern coastline.
If we take a closer look at the A470 route, we will find that this route connects the Yangtze River Delta region, Fujian region and the Pearl River Delta region, and even planes from the eastern region to Southeast Asia also take this route, so thousands of aircraft pass through this route every day. If we turn on Flightradar24 to check the real-time airspace situation, we can see that the A470, the eastern coastal route, is the busiest route in China.
The red line is the coastal A470 route, and it is clear from the real-time aircraft map of the FR24 that the aircraft density is higher than that of other routes.
The A470 route has long been overwhelmed, but the demand for aviation is still growing, and opening up new routes for diversion has become an inevitable choice. As a result, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) began to apply for the M503 route through the Taiwan Strait as early as 2007, and in 2015 it was approved by ICAO as an official route.
This route is close to the mainland side of the boundary between the Shanghai Flight Area and the Taipei Flight Area over the Taiwan Strait, and is within the scope of the Shanghai Flight Area. The W122 and W123 routes are the connecting routes between Fuzhou and Xiamen Airport to the M503 route.
The red is the congested A470 and the green is the M503.
It can be said that the M503 route is completely a civil route in line with international civil aviation treaties opened by China according to the use of airspace and tapping the potential within its own jurisdiction. In many years of actual use, domestic flights often do not use the M503 route, and most international or regional flights use this route, the most typical is the flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong.
Disputes over shipping routes.
However, since 2015, when ICAO approved the M503 route and the three attached connecting routes, the Taiwan side has continued to hype the threat posed by the M503 route, including but not limited to the proximity of the two connecting routes W122 and W123 to Kinmen and Matsu, and there will be "flight security problems" and claim that "without the consent of the Taiwan side".
Well, the so-called "flight safety problem" refers to the fact that the route close to Kinmen and Matsu will cause safety risks. However, the altitude of the mainland's route is 30,000 feet, while the maximum altitude of the route used by Kinmen Matsu is only 20,000 feet. Moreover, ICAO has approved it, so what are the aviation safety hazards? As for "without the consent of the Taiwan side", it is even more nonsense, take a look clearly, this route is within the airspace controlled by the mainland, how can I fly in my own airspace, I still need your approval?
But at this point in time in 2015, when the Taiwan authorities were in power by Ma Ying-jeou, cross-strait relations were relatively flat. Therefore, in order to take care of the feelings of the Taiwan authorities at that time, after consultation with the Taiwan side, the part of the M503 route close to the boundary between Shanghai and Taipei (the part of the strait boundary of the flight area basically overlaps with the so-called "middle line of the strait" of the Taiwan authorities) was offset to the west by 6 nautical miles, and finally the closest point to the boundary of the flight area was about 10 nautical miles, and the actual flight route was offset to the west by 4 nautical miles, and the actual flight route was 14 nautical miles (about 26 kilometers) from the boundary of the flight area. It greatly exceeds the common safety distance of 10 kilometers in international civil aviation, and only the southbound route after offset is enabled, and the northbound route and the three connecting routes (W121, W122, and W123) are not enabled for the time being.
It can be said that at that time, out of consideration for the overall situation of the two sides of the strait, the mainland side made the greatest concessions to the unreasonable demands of the Taiwan authorities, and it could even be called "humble."
The rose-red color is the original M503 route, and the green dotted line is the offset (6 nautical miles) offset M503 route, which can be seen closer to the mainland side.
In 2018, as the Tsai Ing-wen administration came to power and insisted on opposing the "92 Consensus", the attitude of the mainland side gradually changed. In January 2018, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) announced the launch of the northbound portion of the M503 route. The Taiwan authorities began to hype up the so-called "flight security" and "national security" issues one after another, clamoring that airlines not to use the M503 route, otherwise they would "bear their own consequences," and demanded communication with the mainland.
Well, the issue of "Fei'an" has already been said earlier, it is nonsense, and it has proved that there are no problems in the previous three years of one-way operation. So what is the issue of "national security"?
It turned out that the Taiwan authorities said that military planes might use the civil airliners on the M503 route as a cover to carry out "air violations" -- look, what are these sayings? That's too much of a dish, isn't it?
As for the requirement that the airlines not use the route, it was ridiculed by many people in the aviation industry: want to control the aircraft of foreign airlines that are not in their jurisdiction? What an international joke! At that time, Dragonair's response to this was very representative of the general attitude of the airlines: this is an internationally recognised route, and we fly according to the instructions in our jurisdiction, which is an international practice.
The Taiwan authorities, who have been hyping up the issue of "flying safe" on the M503 route but are bored with themselves, have not given up and are ready to use the "consultations" on the M503 route as an excuse to take the opportunity to restart cross-strait communication that had been interrupted by opposition to the "consensus of '92." The means they have adopted are also a big surprise.
During the Spring Festival travel in 2018, the Taiwan authorities refused to approve the overtime application of a total of 176 cross-strait Spring Festival flights between China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines under the pretext of the M503 route, in order to threaten the "resumption of dialogue". However, the purpose of working overtime on cross-strait flights during the Spring Festival is to facilitate the return of Taiwan compatriots who work and live on the mainland to their hometowns during the Spring Festival, and this is a special arrangement based on humanity. The Taiwan authorities brazenly threatened to cancel cross-strait overtime work during the Spring Festival, hurting Taiwan compatriots who need to return home during the Spring Festival.
Using the interests of his own people to blackmail the mainland to "restore communication" can't help but make people laugh dumbly, like a child who wants to gain the attention of his parents through self-harm.
In the end, the Taiwan authorities' hype of the M503 route issue did not achieve the desired results, and the mainland side ignored its unreasonable acts.
It is worth mentioning that during the M503 route incident in 2018, the Taiwan media also hyped up the "Jingguo" fighter plane stationed in Penghu to "counter" the M503 route, and the famous "two missiles destroyed the Three Gorges Dam" was born during this period of "theology". The Taiwan authorities and the green media hyped up the issue of the M503 route, but ended up with a ridiculous ending in which no one paid attention to it and talked to themselves.
What does the full launch of the M503 service mean?
Now, what does the Civil Aviation Administration of China mean when it announces the full launch of the M503 route? Before answering this question, let's take a look at the differences between this launch and previous years.
In the past (2015 and 2018) on the launch of the M503 route, the mainland's publicity on this matter was limited to the level of one industry news. After all, even for the civil aviation industry, this matter is not a big deal, it is nothing more than the opening of a new route; For the public, it is not as much of concern as the opening of a new highway somewhere. It is often after the Taiwan side has hyped up and there are derivative events (such as the cancellation of Spring Festival flights) that the mainland has followed up.
But the opening of the M503 route, we can find the difference from the past: after the Civil Aviation Administration announced the opening, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council immediately issued a statement on this, and then followed up with a large number of reports, so that many people were confused for a while. This kind of reporting specification, which is much higher than "industry news", itself sends a major signal - if in the past we were passive in dealing with the M503 route, then this time we are taking the initiative.
And what kind of signal is sent about the cancellation of the offset route and the activation of the W122 and W123 routes?
As explained above, in 2015, in order to accommodate the sentiment of the Taiwan authorities, the M503 route was offset to the west by 6 nautical miles, which is now called the offset route. To put it bluntly, back then, the bias of the route to the west was to give you face, but now since you have been embarrassed for so many years, then this face will not be given.
The W122 and W123 routes need to pass through the border between Kinmen and Matsu, and in order to take care of Taiwan's sentiments, the west-to-east routes from the mainland to Kinmen and Matsu were not used to avoid so-called "national security" anxiety; Now that these two routes have been opened in the west-to-east direction, the mainland no longer cares about the pretentious "worries" of the Taiwan authorities.
Purple is the so-called "middle line of the strait" of the Taiwan authorities, red is the actual route that was previously flown through the M503 offset route, and green is the original M503 route that is now in operation.
As for the so-called "military aircraft attacking under the cover of civil aviation routes"? Do we still need to play this kind of trick that doesn't put it on the table?
On the other hand, Taiwan, unlike the 2018 overwhelming hype of the threat of the M503 route and the clamoring and threats, this time the Taiwan side in addition to "** requires communication, the overall tone is currently very low, which is in stark contrast to the high-profile reports from the mainland. On the one hand, the Taiwan authorities have just completed the election and are in the process of "changing the term of office" and are unable to take major action, while on the other hand, they are aware that the boomerang has come back.
In 2018, the Taiwan authorities hyped up the M503 route, making an ordinary civil aviation route an important issue on the island. Now that we see that the mainland has really taken the initiative to take action on the issue of the M503 route, if the Taiwan authorities are unable to take effective action in this regard, then the previous clamor will become a burden on them. In other words, the previously hyped M503 route issue has now become a shot on one's own feet, and you can only hold it back. After all, in any respect, the Taiwan authorities do not take any advantage of it.
If I were to summarize the message of the Civil Aviation Administration of China's launch of the original M503 route, then I think the statement made by Chen Binhua, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at the press conference can answer this question: Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, and there is no so-called "median line of the strait".
The tide of history is mighty, and I hope that the Taiwan authorities will see it soberly.