China chokes Taiwan civilian airspace

Taipei: At least 33 flights will be affected by China’s plan to set up a no-fly zone to the north of Taiwan on April 16, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency (CNA) reported, citing the island’s transport minister, Wang Kwo-tsai. The impact on flights was greatly reduced after Taiwan said it had successfully urged China to drastically narrow its plan to close air space north of the island, Wang was reported as saying. Wang said the ministry had discussed with Japanese aviation authorities who will issue notices later on Thursday to boats and planes to avoid the area for that specific period on Sunday morning, the CNA said. Wang said the ban could add “less than one hour” of extra travel time to the affected flights as they will have to divert further south from their original routes. Taiwan’s transport ministry on Wednesday published a map showing what it labelled China’s “aerospace activity zone” to the northeast of Taiwan and near a group of disputed islets called Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan. The development follows days of intense military drills that China has staged around Taiwan in response to President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last week. War games  Taiwan has been on high alert since China launched its military drills on Saturday. The exercises ended on Monday when Beijing sent 54 aircraft into the island’s southwestern and southeastern ADIZ – the highest recorded in a single day since October 2021. The zone is not the same as Taiwan’s territorial airspace and includes a far greater area that overlaps with part of China’s own ADIZ and even some of the mainland. J15 fighter jets flown off China’s Shandong aircraft carrier were among the aircraft that crossed the median line, an unofficial boundary in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan’s defence ministry said. The ministry also said eight warships and 35 aircraft were detected between Tuesday and Wednesday morning after the war games ended. With inputs from agency. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .