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Post by Admin on Nov 27, 2013 22:44:22 GMT
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's PC3 surveillance plane flies around the disputed islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku isles in Japan and Diaoyu in China, in this October 13, 2011 The United States pledged support for ally Japan on Wednesday in a growing dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea and senior U.S. administration officials accused Beijing of behavior that had unsettled its neighbors. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel assured his Japanese counterpart in a phone call that the two nations' defense pact covered the small islands where China established a new airspace defense zone last week and commended Tokyo "for exercising appropriate restraint," a Pentagon spokesman said. China's declaration raised the stakes in a territorial standoff between Beijing and Tokyo over the area, which includes the tiny uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden walks on top of the lock gates during a visit to the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal in Panama City November 19, 2013. In a previously announced trip, Vice President Joe Biden will visit China, Japan and South Korea next week. He will seek to ease tensions heightened by China's declaration, senior administration officials said. Washington does not take a position on the sovereignty of the islands but recognizes that Tokyo has administrative control over them and the United States is therefore bound to defend Japan in the event of an armed conflict. Some experts say the Chinese move was aimed at eroding Tokyo's claim to administrative control over the area. China's declaration of a defense zone affects not only Japan but aircraft from other countries throughout the world that routinely fly over the area. The U.S. government has advised U.S. airlines to take necessary steps to operate safely over the East China Sea. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States was trying to determine whether China's new rules apply to commercial airlines in addition to military aircraft.
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Post by Admin on Nov 28, 2013 1:30:48 GMT
Ambassador Caroline Kennedy defends U.S. military flying B-52 bombers through the disputed East China Sea zone. China’s decision to claim an expansive ADIZ across the East China Sea not only challenges its neighbors in Northeast Asia. It also offers a direct challenge to the United States. U.S. defense secretary Chuck Hagel issued a statement of U.S. “concern” immediately after China’s ADIZ announcement. Hagel stated that “we view this development as a destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region. This unilateral action increases the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations.” In addition to noting that Washington would closely coordinate with its allies in the region, Hagel stated the Chinese announcement “will not in any way change how the United States military operates in the region. A day later, Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman Yang Yujun rebutted the U.S. protest, and cautioned the United States “not to take sides” in the dispute between China and Japan. “We demand the U.S. side to earnestly respect China’s national security, stop making irresponsible remarks for China’s setup in the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone, and make concrete efforts for the peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region.” Keeping militaries apart and alert to the consequences of miscalculation is the biggest challenge for U.S., Japanese, and Chinese policymakers. This new ADIZ announcement only enhances risk and deepens suspicions. Cooperation in creating viable risk reduction measures ought to be the highest priority. The militaries must have a framework for political oversight that prioritizes risk reduction rather than increased military involvement in shared maritime and airspace in the East China Sea. Japan’s military has long been inculcated with the norm of civilian control, and has an “exclusively defensive” doctrine that shapes training and operations. ASDF rules of engagement were publicly reconfirmed in December after the Y-16 incursion, the fist time this was necessary since a Soviet Backfire bomber violated Japanese airspace near Okinawa in 1987. Japan’s military has had the greatest interaction with Russian (former Soviet) air forces in the north, and has a regular consultative process to monitor military interactions and prevent risky behaviors. Maritime risk reduction measures are also badly needed. The nascent High Level Maritime Talks that began in 2011 were halted after tensions erupted again in 2012. Ultimately, Japan and China will need an Incidents at Sea type agreement that outlines how commanders are expected to respond in cases of accidents or mistakes on the high seas. Even at the worst moments of the Cold War, U.S. and Soviet navies relied on each other for assistance in the case of accidents. Popular sentiment in Japan and China has become highly sensitive to the island dispute, and both governments are hard pressed to find a way of managing their differences. This latest announcement by Beijing only exacerbates the risks that the growing interactions of Chinese and Japanese forces in and around the Senkaku Islands will lead to conflict. Even China’s Ministry of Defense acknowledged the dangers of last January’s fire control incident even as it denied that Chinese forces were responsible. Thus, at this moment where Beijing is refusing to discuss risk reduction with Tokyo, increasing the likelihood of further interaction between the militaries seems inexplicably reckless.
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Post by Admin on Nov 28, 2013 22:18:20 GMT
China sent fighter jets into its newly declared air defense zone Thursday on what state media called the country’s first air patrol since it declared control of the airspace. The announcement came hours after Japan and South Korea sent their own military planes into the airspace over the East China Sea, testing China’s resolve to enforce its declaration. The announcement of the flights came just days after unarmed American B-52 bombers flew through the same zone in defiance of China. Beijing later said that it had monitored the American bombers but had chosen not to take action even though the planes did not tell the Chinese they were coming, as the government now demands. Parts of archipelagos, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea. On Thursday, the top Japanese government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, said that the Chinese had not been notified of the Japanese flights, and reported that China did not scramble its fighter jets to intercept the planes. The South Korean government announced that it, too, had flown aircraft through the zone, on Wednesday, without alerting Beijing, a flight Chinese officials said they had monitored. The South Korean plane was a surveillance aircraft, the South Korean government said. Like Japan, South Korea claims sovereignty over territory in the zone, but enjoys warmer ties with Beijing than Japan does. Japan did not specify how many patrols had flown through the zone or when the flights were made. Japan, the United States and South Korea have all refused to recognize the air zone, which includes the airspace above disputed islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in Chinese. The islands are administered by Japan, but also claimed by China.
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Post by Admin on Nov 29, 2013 5:07:13 GMT
THE announcement by a Chinese military spokesman on November 23rd sounded bureaucratic: any aircraft flying through the newly designated Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea must notify Chinese authorities in advance and follow instructions from its air-traffic controllers. America’s response was rapid. On November 26th Barack Obama sent two B-52 bombers to fly through the new zone without notifying China (see article). This face-off marks the most worrying strategic escalation between the two countries since 1996, when China’s then president, Jiang Zemin, ordered a number of exclusion zones for missile tests in the Taiwan Strait, leading America to send two aircraft-carriers there. Plenty of countries establish zones in which they require aircraft to identify themselves, but they tend not to be over other countries’ territory. The Chinese ADIZ overlaps with Japan’s own air-defence zone (see map). It also includes some specks of rock that Japan administers and calls the Senkaku islands (and which China claims and calls the Diaoyus), as well as a South Korean reef, known as Ieodo. The move is clearly designed to bolster China’s claims (see article). On November 28th Japan and South Korea sent aircraft into the zone. Growing economic power is bound to go hand-in-hand with growing regional assertiveness. That is fine, so long as the behaviour of the rising power remains within international norms. In this case, however, China’s does not; and America, which has guaranteed free navigation of the seas and skies of East Asia for 60 years, is right to make that clear. How worrying China’s move is depends partly on the thinking behind it. It may be that, like a teenager on a growth spurt who doesn’t know his own strength, China has underestimated the impact of its actions. The claim that America’s bombers had skirted the edge of the ADIZ was gawkily embarrassing. But teenagers who do not realise the consequences of their actions often cause trouble: China has set up a casus belli with its neighbours and America for generations to come. It would thus be much more worrying if the provocation was deliberate. The “Chinese dream” of Xi Jinping, the new president, is a mixture of economic reform and strident nationalism. The announcement of the ADIZ came shortly after a party plenum at which Mr Xi announced a string of commendably radical domestic reforms. The new zone will appeal to the nationalist camp, which wields huge power, particularly in the armed forces. It also helps defend Mr Xi against any suggestions that he is a westernising liberal. If this is Mr Xi’s game, it is a dangerous one. East Asia has never before had a strong China and a strong Japan at the same time. China dominated the region from the mists of history until the 1850s, when the West’s arrival spurred Japan to modernise while China tried to resist the foreigners’ influence. China is eager to re-establish dominance over the region. Bitterness at the memory of the barbaric Japanese occupation in the second world war sharpens this desire. It is this possibility of a clash between a rising and an established power that lies behind the oft-used parallel between contemporary East Asia and early 20th-century Europe, in which the Senkakus play the role of Sarajevo. Tensions are not at that level. Japan’s constitution bans it from any military aggression and China normally goes to great lengths to stress that its rise—unlike that of Japan in the 1920s and 1930s—will be peaceful. But the neighbours are nervous, especially as the establishment of the ADIZ appears to match Chinese ambitions in the South China Sea. Chinese maps show what is known as the “nine-dash line” encompassing all the South China Sea. In the wake of the global financial crisis, perhaps believing its own narrative of Chinese rise and American decline, it began to overreach in its dealings with its neighbours. It sent ships to disputed reefs, pressed foreign oil companies to halt exploration and harassed American and Vietnamese naval vessels in the South China Sea. These actions brought a swift rebuke from America’s then secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and China appeared to back off and return to its regional charm offensive. Some observers say that the government is using the ADIZ to establish a nine-dash line covering the East China Sea as well. They fear China’s next move will be to declare an ADIZ over the South China Sea, to assert control over both the sea and the air throughout the region. Whether or not China has such specific ambitions, the ADIZ clearly suggests that China does not accept the status quo in the region and wants to change it. Any Chinese leader now has an excuse for going after Japanese planes. Chinese ships are already ignoring Japanese demands not to enter the waters surrounding the disputed islands. What can be done? Next week Joe Biden, America’s vice-president, arrives in China. The timing may be uncomfortable, but it is fortuitous. Mr Biden and Mr Xi know each other well: before Mr Xi became president, he spent five days in America at Mr Biden’s invitation. Mr Biden is also going to South Korea and Japan. America’s “pivot” towards Asia is not taken very seriously there: Mr Obama is seen as distracted by his domestic problems. Mr Biden could usefully make clear America’s commitment to guaranteeing freedom of navigation in the region. Japan and South Korea, who squabble over petty issues, need to be told to get over their differences. As for China, it needs to behave like a responsible world power, not a troublemaker willing to sacrifice 60 years of peace in north-east Asia to score some points by grabbing a few windswept rocks. It should accept Japan’s suggestion of a military hotline, similar to the one that is already established between Beijing and Washington. The region must work harder to build some kind of architecture where regional powers can discuss security. If such a framework had existed in Europe in 1914, things might have turned out differently.
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Post by Admin on Nov 30, 2013 5:59:44 GMT
China's official Xinhua news agency quotes Defense Ministry spokesman Shen Jinke Friday as saying the fighter jets identified two U.S. and 10 Japanese aircraft during their flights over disputed islands controlled by Tokyo and claimed by Beijing. The report makes no mention of any communication or other engagement between the Chinese planes and the U.S. and Japanese aircraft. Washington and Tokyo have not yet commented on the report. Despite the tensions, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense James Clad said in an interview with VOA that the possibility of direct conflict is not a large concern. "If I had to guess, unhappily I'd guess there will be more of this and that it will become routine," said Clad. "That each country will say it is making best efforts to assert sovereignty, or assert maintenance of its diplomatic position regarding territorial claims." These tiny islands in the East China Sea - Minamikojima, foreground, Kitakojima, middle right, and Uotsuri, background (called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese), fall within China's new maritime air defense zone. The United States advised U.S. carriers to comply with China's demand that it be told of any flights passing through its new maritime air defense zone over the East China Sea, an area where Beijing said it launched two fighter planes to investigate a dozen American and Japanese reconnaissance and military flights. It was the first time since proclaiming the zone on Nov. 23 that China said it sent planes there on the same day as foreign military flights, although it said it merely identified the foreign planes and took no further action. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Friday that the U.S. remained deeply concerned about China's declared air identification zone. But she said that it is advising U.S. air carriers abroad to comply with notification requirements issued by China. On Wednesday, Psaki had said the U.S. government was working to determine if the new rules applied to civil aviation. But she said that in the meantime, U.S. air carriers were being advised to take all steps they consider necessary to operate safely in the East China Sea region.
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