Beijing doesn’t need Taipei’s permission to open Taiwan Strait air routes, official says

Beijing said China does not need Taiwan’s permission to open new air routes, after Taipei complained that a new route, the M503, was opened over the Taiwan Strait that separates the two states saying it was a security risk and it was done without telling the island, contravening what the democratic government in Taipei said is a 2015 deal to first discuss such flight paths. Spokesman for the mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Ma Xiaoguang, denied breaking the 2015 agreement and said Taiwan had been informed the route would be opening, “but this does not mean that opening air routes needs Taiwan’s agreement”, he said.