BEIJING (AP) — China said it sent warplanes into its newly declared
maritime air defense zone Thursday, days after the U.S., South Korea and
Japan all sent flights through the airspace in defiance of rules
Beijing says it has imposed in the East China Sea.
China's
air force sent several fighter jets and an early warning aircraft on
normal air patrols in the zone, the Xinhua agency reported, citing air
force spokesman Shen Jinke.
The report did not specify exactly
when the flights were sent or whether they had encountered foreign
aircraft. The United States, Japan and South Korea have said they have
sent flights through the zone without encountering any Chinese response
since Beijing announced the creation of the zone last week.
Shen
described Thursday's flights as "a defensive measure and in line with
international common practices." He said China's air force would remain
on high alert and will take measures to protect the country's airspace.
While
China's surprise announcement last week to create the zone initially
raised some tensions in the region, analysts say Beijing's motive is not
to trigger an aerial confrontation but is a more long-term strategy to
solidify claims to disputed territory by simply marking the area as its
own.
China's lack of efforts to stop the foreign flights —
including two U.S. B-52s that flew through the zone on Tuesday — has
been an embarrassment for Beijing. Even some Chinese state media outlets
suggested Thursday that Beijing may have mishandled the episodes.
"Beijing
needs to reform its information release mechanism to win the
psychological battles waged by Washington and Tokyo," the Global Times, a
nationalist tabloid published by the Communist Party's flagship
People's Daily, said in an editorial.
Without prior notice,
Beijing began demanding Saturday that passing aircraft identify
themselves and accept Chinese instructions or face consequences in an
East China Sea zone that overlaps a similar air defense identification
zone overseen by Japan since 1969 and initially part of one set up by
the U.S. military.
But when tested just days later by U.S. B-52
flights — with Washington saying it made no effort to comply with
China's rules, and would not do so in the future — Beijing merely noted,
belatedly, that it had seen the flights and taken no further action.
South
Korea's military said Thursday its planes flew through the zone this
week without informing China and with no apparent interference. Japan
also said its planes have been continuing to fly through it after the
Chinese announcement, while the Philippines, locked in an increasingly
bitter dispute with Beijing over South China Sea islands, said it also
was rejecting China's declaration.
Analysts question China's
technical ability to enforce the zone due to a shortage of early warning
radar aircraft and in-flight refueling capability. However, many
believe that China has a long-term plan to win recognition for the zone
with a gradual ratcheting-up of warnings and possibly also eventual
enforcement action.
"With regard to activity within the zone,
nothing will happen — for a while," said June Teufel Dreyer, a China
expert at the University of Miami. "Then the zone will become gradually
enforced more strictly. The Japanese will continue to protest, but not
much more, to challenge it."
That may wear down Japan and effectively change the status quo, she said.
The
zone is seen primarily as China's latest bid to bolster its claim over a
string of uninhabited Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea
— known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Beijing has been
ratcheting up its sovereignty claims since Tokyo's privatization of the
islands last year.
But the most immediate spark for the zone
likely was Japan's threat last month to shoot down drones that China
says it will send to the islands for mapping expeditions, said Dennis
Blasko, an Asia analyst at think tank CNA's China Security Affairs Group
and a former Army attache in Beijing.
The zone comes an awkward
time. Although Beijing's ties with Tokyo are at rock bottom, it was
building good will and mutual trust with Washington following a pair of
successful meetings between President Barack Obama and Chinese President
Xi Jinping. However, the zone feud now threatens to overshadow both the
visit by Vice President Joe Biden to Beijing next week and one by
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop expected before the end of the
year.
China's defense and foreign ministries offered no additional
clarification Thursday as to why Beijing failed to respond to the U.S.
Air Force flights. Alliance partners the U.S. and Japan together have
hundreds of military aircraft in the immediate vicinity.
China on
Saturday issued a list of requirements for all foreign aircraft passing
through the area, regardless of whether they were headed into Chinese
airspace, and said its armed forces would adopt "defensive emergency
measures" against aircraft that don't comply.
Beijing said the
notifications are needed to help maintain air safety in the zone.
However, the fact that China said it had identified and monitored the
two U.S. bombers during their Tuesday flight seems to discredit that
justification for the zone, said Rory Medcalf, director of the
international security program at Australia's Lowy Institute
"This suggests the zone is principally a political move," Medcalf said. "It signals a kind of creeping extension of authority."
Along
with concerns about confrontations or accidents involving Chinese
fighters and foreign aircraft, the zone's establishment fuels fears of
further aggressive moves to assert China's territorial claims —
especially in the hotly disputed South China Sea, which Beijing says
belongs entirely to it.
Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun
confirmed those concerns on Saturday by saying China would establish
additional air defense identification zones "at an appropriate time."
For
now, however, China's regional strategy is focused mostly on Japan and
the island dispute, according to government-backed Chinese scholars.
China
will continue piling the pressure on Tokyo until it reverses the
decision to nationalize the islands, concedes they are in dispute, and
opens up negotiations with Beijing, said Shen Dingli, a regional
security expert and director of the Center for American Studies at
Shanghai's Fudan University.
"China has no choice but to take
counter measures," Shen said. "If Japan continues to reject admitting
the disputes, it's most likely that China will take further measures."
SourceL Yahoo News
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