WORLD
China sends warplanes to new air defense zone after U.S., Japan, S. Korea incursions
BEIJING — China said Thursday that it had sent warplanes to patrol its newly declaredmaritime air defense identification zone, ratcheting up a dispute over an island chain that has turned into a dangerous standoff in the region.
The move came after Japan and South Korea said Thursday that they had sent surveillance aircraft of their own into the area. The United States has joined many of China’s neighbors in condemning its decision earlier this week to establish the zone, and defied Beijing by flying two U.S. B-52 bombers through the area on Tuesday.
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A Chinese air force spokesman, Col. Shen Jinke, said several fighter jets and an early warning aircraft had been sent on “defensive” air patrols in the zone, to “strengthen the monitoring of aerial targets,” the Xinhua state news agency reported.
Experts say China’s decision to establish the zone — bolstered by a threat that any noncommercial aircraft entering it without notice could face “defensive emergency measures” — has inflamed an already tense situation with Japan, and raised the possibility of military conflict.
Beijing had initially reacted calmly to the U.S. challenge on Tuesday, simply noting that it had identified and monitored the American warplanes. That muted response drew criticism from citizens on Chinese micro-blogging sites, and even from state media.
The nationalist Global Times newspaper said the United States had engaged China in a “war of public opinion,” and that Beijing had “failed to make a timely and ideal response.”
“Beijing needs to reform its information release mechanism to win the psychological battles waged by Washington and Tokyo,” the paper said in an editorial.
Shen said the Chinese air force would remain on high alert and would take “relevant measures according to different air threats” to defend the country’s airspace, Xinhua reported.
In another editorial, the Global Times said Japan, not the United States, was the target of the new zone and suggested the enforcement of the zone would be selective.
“If the U.S. does not go too far, we will not target it in safeguarding our air defense zone,” the newspaper wrote. “What we should do at present is to firmly counter provocative actions from Japan.”
The latest flights intensify the game of dare being played above Asia’s contested maritime territory. Analysts said China had established the zone to bolster its claims to a chain of tiny, rocky islands administered by Japan, and to match a similar air defense identification zone long established by its rival.
But they said the decision could have backfired, uniting several of China’s neighbors in condemnation and providing the United States a perfect opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to ensuring stability in the Asia-Pacific region.
A Japanese government spokesman said Thursday that its Lockheed Martin-made turboprop patrol planes have been conducting routine flights in China’s air defense identification zone since Beijing’s declaration. The spokesman did not say specifically when the flights have taken place or how many there have been. Japan has not been notifying China of its activities.
Japan’s Defense Ministry did not confirm the flights, but one official, requesting anonymity to describe the situation, said that Japan is “conducting the same monitoring activity as before, and we will not change or restrict such activities.”
South Korea’s flight took place Wednesday near the area of a South Korean maritime research center, built atop a submerged rock that both Seoul and Beijing contest.
The flight marks a “clear sign that Seoul will not recognize the new airspace claim,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said in its report. Yonhap also reported Thursday that China had rejected Seoul’s request to redraw its air defense identification zone and eliminate an overlap with the zone of South Korea. The South in turn said it may expand its own zone.
In Asia’s waters, territorial disputes go back decades or centuries and draw in nearly every nation in the region. The nastiest dispute of late has been between Japan and China over several uninhabited islets and rocks known as the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese.
Japan infuriated China last year by purchasing several of those islets from a private landowner, and China has since increased its surveillance — both with vessels and aircraft — around those islands. Japan has frequently scrambled its own fighter jets in response.
U.S. officials said China’s unilaterally announced air defense identification zone needlessly raised tensions between Asia’s two largest economies. In his trip next week through the region, Vice President Biden plans to convey those concerns to China, a senior Obama administration official told reporters on Wednesday.
“There is an emerging pattern of behavior by China that is unsettling to China’s own neighbors,” the official said. Biden will raise questions “about how China operates in international space and how China deals with areas of disagreement with its neighbors.”
Harlan reported from Seoul. Li Qi contributed to this report.
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China invaded and occupied Tibet.
China is encroaching into Russian Siberia.
China claims huge areas of international waters in what is called the South China Sea down into the territorial waters of the Philippines and Vietnam.
China claims certain Japanese islands.
China claims certain Philippine islands.
China claims certain islands of Vietnam.
China missile brigades are now targeting Hanoi to intimidate Vietnam, which it has historically occupied.
China supports the rogue dictatorship of North Korea as it builds nuclear weapons and ICBM's.
China’s expansive campaign to acquire Lebensraum seems to be the biggest challenge to the international community existing today. Territorial aggression has always been the source of wars.
We need to work with Russia, India, Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines on this issue.
tibet is a part of china long before u.s. was founded.
russia took large pieces of chinese territory,northwest, north, northeast, in 1800s.
japan snatched diaoyu island and taiwan from china at the end of 1800s and invaded and annexed ryukyu kingdom then. taiwan and diaoyu island were returned to china when ww2 ended.
china claimed many islands in the south china sea as part of china without claiming the international waterway. and many are first found, recorded, administered by china. no country objected then. and anyone with a functioning eye can see it in the old maps of u.s, phillipine, and so on. after 1970s phillipine, vietnam etc began to claim some of those islands.
china never bullied other country like some self-assured power, who is ever ready to fight all over the world and support many dictatorian kingdoms.