US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan, and China’s subsequent military intimidation against Taiwan, has become a matter of considerable global attention. An area which has been little remarked upon in the media, but which is deeply important, is the route which the US Speaker’s plane took to get to Taiwan: the plane departed from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on August 2nd, taking a long leg flying northeast over the South China Sea, where China has been building up its military presence in recent years. The plane then entered the Taipei Flight Information Region (Taipei FIR) which is managed by Taiwan Civil Aviation Administration, and landed at Taipei Songshan Airport. The reason for following this longer-than-usual flight route was to avoid entering the “unfriendly” Chinese FIR.
This route was both practical and immensely symbolic: While democracy can often take the long route, it cannot be held back because of fear. There are many roads in this world, but “all roads lead to Rome.” In a democratic society, freedom of movement is a fundamental human right. And the foundation of this human rights lies in the seamless and smooth flow of “friendly” international flights. It is imperative that we work hard to protect those rights by ensuring that the Taipei FIR can continue operating safely and effectively in line with the “seamless sky” goal of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) .
In fact, after the US House Speaker left Taiwan, China conducted military exercises in the waters surrounding Taiwan for threatening civilian air routes. Taiwan is also coordinating the way the flight from the Taipei FIR goes north via the Japan FIR or south via the Philippine FIR without disrupting air traffic.
It is both very unfair and materially un-democratic that Taiwan, an important stakeholder in international aviation, has been excluded from ICAO since 1971 for political reasons. Pelosi’s “special flight” highlights the importance of Taiwan as a “friendly” air traffic hub between Northeast and Southeast Asia.
The theme of 41th session of the ICAO Assembly, due to be held from September 27 to October 7 of this year, will be “Reconnecting the world”; it is time for the ICAO to reconnect with Taiwan in our collective effort to realise a seamless sky.
Pierre T. P. Yang is the Representative at the Taipei representative Office in Ireland.