Taipei arrests 13 protesters over China's Taiwan Strait flight route

Taiwanese police arrested 13 people yesterday who splashed red paint on the wall of the presidential residence in the latest protest against China’s planned launch of a controversial new flight route.

The protesters from the small anti-China opposition party Taiwan Solidarity Union had briefly scuffled with military police guarding the residence of President Ma Ying-jeou in Taipei early yesterday.

The demonstration came before today’s scheduled launch of the route known as M503 over the Taiwan Strait.

M503 is one of four proposed routes that would take planes over the Taiwan Strait from China’s coastal province of Zhejiang and the cities of Fuzhou and Xiamen in Fujian province.

Beijing said the routes were necessary to ease congestion on an existing flight path.

However, Taiwan’s authorities have criticised the unilateral move and said it posed a potential air defence threat.

The route was originally due to be launched on March 5, but was postponed because of objections. China later slightly modified the M503 route, but has been pressing ahead with the launch.