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Taiwan opposition calls Chinese plan to open new air route unwise

Taipei - Taiwan's opposition presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou on Tuesday criticised as 'unwise' a plan by China to open a new air route near the island's air force training space.

'Not only is the plan unfriendly, but it is also unwise at a sensitive time when Taiwan is soon to hold important elections,' said Ma of the China-conciliatory Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT).

His comment reflects the KMT's worries that the Chinese move could hurt the party's chances in the parliament election to be held in January and the presidential election slated for March, political observers said.

Under the plan, China will open a new air route over the Taiwan Strait on January 1, 2008. As the air route is only 42 nautical miles west of the middle line in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan is concerned that it would overlap with the Taiwanese air route and potentially cause air accidents.

Taiwan is also concerned that the new air route would threaten the island's security as it takes less than five minutes for a plane on the route to fly into Taipei's air space.

Ma called on China to scrap its plan, saying the government of independence-leaning President Chen Shui-bian would certainly use the Chinese plan to provoke nationalism in Taiwan and increase voters' resentment to China.

China regards the island of Taiwan as its territory and regards the Taiwan Strait as its internal waters. Taiwan and China split in 1939 when the Communists won the Chinese Civil War and drove the Republic of China government into exile on Taiwan.

Currently, under a mutual understanding, Taiwanese and Chinese civilian planes and warplanes @2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur