Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Six years ago, on Jan. 29, 2012, Reuters reported on the completion of the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. The building was paid for by the Chinese, who even provided the furniture and IT experts to set up the center’s telecommunications equipment.

While critics suspected the reasons for China’s involvement in the continent’s economic development, African leaders welcomed it. Then-Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi made comparisons between China’s rise and the “beginning of the African renaissance,” which he at least partly attributed to Chinese investment in infrastructure, energy and telecom technology in Africa.

Taiwan and China in January 2015 consulted over the M503 flight route, which runs northeast to southwest about 8 nautical miles (14.8km) west of the median line of the Taiwan Strait.

At the time, China said that overland civil aviation routes from Shanghai to Guangzhou had become so congested that it needed to open a new air artery over the Strait.

Taiwan countered that air routes over the Strait were too congested for such a move, so the two sides compromised on a southbound-only opening and agreed that China would not seek additional northbound routes without prior consultation.