Taiwan filed an objection with the United Nations aviation agency over new commercial flight routes off China's southeastern coast that it said poses a safety risk to its planes.
"The mainland should not implement the new routes before the negotiations are completed," the Central News Agency reported Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin as saying Thursday. Taiwan threatened to "evict" any planes that stray into its airspace and lodged a protest with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
In announcing the routes Wednesday, China called on Taiwan to show "more understanding and less suspicion" toward the opening of four flight paths, Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said in Beijing. The paths will help ease aviation congestion between Shanghai and the Pearl River Delta, Ma said.