After a short-term no-fly zone (krone.at reported), China has also announced the closure of a sea area north of Taiwan for Sunday due to the danger of falling missile debris.
In a brief statement on Thursday, the China Maritime Safety Administration released coordinates for the zone and said shipping passage would be prohibited from 9 a.m. local time (3 a.m. EDT) to 3 p.m. (9 a.m. EDT) on Sunday. Beijing has not yet commented on the no-fly zone.
But South Korea, which was also aware of the plans, said it involves a falling object linked to a launch vehicle. Taiwan said China had shortened the originally planned duration of the April 16-18 no-fly zone to about half an hour on Sunday after a government protest in Taipei.
Rising tensions in the region
The closures of the Chinese area come at a time of heightened tensions in the region. China recently held major military exercises around Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province and part of the People’s Republic.
The maneuvers came on the heels of a meeting between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the United States last week. Democratically governed Taiwan pushes for independence.
China has criticized meetings between Taiwanese and US officials as a provocation and sees them as a demonstration of independence claims. Last year, the leadership in Beijing responded to a visit to Taiwan by then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with major maneuvers around the island.
Source: Krone
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