Originally Posted by
moondog
-China's current objection justifiably hinges upon the fact that it is being singled out wrt Russia
-the US is in a position to allay this concern
-the DOT (on its own accord) is not
That's not China's main concern. From the FT article I posted earlier:
One Chinese embassy official said Beijing’s proposal to equalise weekly flight numbers — to give both sides 12 — was “quite reasonable”. He blamed Washington for the stalemate in the negotiations, saying China did not accept that its carriers should have to avoid flying over Russia.
“The slow progress at the moment is not what we want to see. Frankly speaking, the responsibility lies with the US side,” the official said. “An issue between the US and Russia is not one between the US and China, even less should it be used as a basis for demanding the so-called ‘reciprocity’.”
...
The Chinese official said another reason not to accept the US condition about circumventing Russia was that airlines from other countries, such as India and the UAE, flew over Russia without facing repercussions in the US.
The primary disagreement is "China did not accept that its carriers should have to avoid flying over Russia," because "[a]n issue between the US and Russia is not one between the US and China." In other words, it's the same type of dispute as all the other trade/tech disputes - China does not want Chinese business to be subject to America's unilateral geopolitically-motivated restrictions.
The issue regarding India and ME3 is just "another reason"--not the main one. A law codifying a ban may resolve the secondary issue, but further inflames the primary dispute.