Three thoughts as regards the Chinese declaration of an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) including the airspace over the Senkakus.
1) Some of the world's media and Japanese officials have portrayed the U.S. Air Forces' flying of two B-52s unannounced into the Chinese ADIZ on November 26 as a gutsy finger-in-the-eye response to the Chinese declaration. Some in Japan also see it as a strong vote in support of the Japanese government's contention that the zone is invalid. (Link)
This would seem to be an over reading of the U.S. Defense Department's actions.
U.S. military aircraft never announce their entry into the ADIZs of other nations, unless of course under orders to do so. Not alerting the Chinese as to the entry of the B-52s into the new ADIZ was standard operating procedure.
So the B-52s were not challenging Chinese resolve. They were just flying.
2) Some commentators on last week's events concluded that while there may be teething problems and that some adjustments may needed, China's new ADIZ is entirely within its rights and is thus here to stay. (Link)
Maybe.
ADIZs are seen as extensions of a country's right to establish conditions for entry into its territory or airspace. An ADIZ thus assumes a clear position on sovereignty.
By declaring an ADIZ extending over the Senkakus, over which Japan has had administrative control since 1972 and which the Japanese government insists are Japan's alone, the Chinese government has taken the argument over its claims on the Senkakus out of the realm of conjecture and the hands of Coast Guard ship commanders and given it over to military air forces commanders and fighter pilots on both sides -- with all the possibilities of errors snowballing into mass conflict that such a handover might produce.
If China were to now try to ease tensions by carving out from their new ADIZ the airspace above the Senkakus and the corridor projecting back to Japan's airspace, the resulting ADIZ would not affect the status quo in terms angry meetings of militaries. It would, however, be read as a tacit acknowledgement of Japan's sovereignty over the Senkakus.
So the ADIZ will either result in the degradation of Chinese security or the undermining of China's territorial claims on the Senkakus.
So China is within its rights? Maybe. Within its right mind? Seemingly not.
3) By declaring that it will enforce its claims over the Senkakus with fighter jets, the Chinese have brought the tale of the Senkakus close to its only reasonable end game scenario, undoing the damage inflicted upon the region by the duplicitous, self-serving Nixon Administration: the United States recognizing Japanese sovereignty over the islands.
One hopes that Vice President Biden made this point clear in his talks with President Xi two days ago.
A guide to Japan’s general election
5 weeks ago
5 comments:
"1) Some of the world's media and Japanese officials portrayed the U.S. Air Forces' flying of two B-52s unannounced into the Chinese ADIZ on November 26 as a gutsy finger-in-the-eye response to the Chinese declaration and a strong vote in support of Japan's contention that the zone is invalid (Link)
This would seem to be an over reading of the U.S. Defense Department's actions.
U.S. military aircraft never announce their entry into the ADIZs of other nations, unless of course under orders to do so. Not alerting the Chinese as to the entry of the B-52s into the new ADIZ was standard operating procedure.
So the B-52s were not challenging Chinese resolve. They were just flying."
Still not sure what difference there is in what you're trying to say and what the opinion of other's concerning US's "challenge" is.
China was clearly pissing people off with their ADIZ declaration which nobody in their right mind would approve. Yes, the US B29s were more or less OBEYING international law, but it is by this OBEYING the law that the US was more or less saying "F-you" to China's blatant DISREGARD of it.
Maybe the US doesn't think anything of it, but remember this is the thin-skinned PRC we're talking about.
Anonymous -
Forgive me for being obscure.
The media in Japan has been struggling over how to portray the United States response to the China's declaration of its ADIZ. It twisted itself into knots over Vice President Biden's expressing "concern" regarding the establishment of the zone. The challenge posed to the alliance seemed to deserve a much stronger word. In addition, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and State Department have issued confused statements regarding U.S. civil air carriers complying with Chinese demands for flight plans, advice running counter to the purported U.S. policy of standing beside its treaty ally Japan on the need to utterly oppose the zone's establishment.
Sending B-52s into the zone without warning have been portrayed as the hard power projection counterweight to the heretofore limp U.S. civil response. "Whatever the civilian response, the U.S. is fundamentally with us on thinking the zone bogus," has been the interpretation.
This interpretation is clearly wrong. Having a pair of its B-52s transitting the zone says nothing about the U.S. government's opionion of the zone.
If the Chinese government misinterprets the B-52 flights as a "F-you" (Shukan Bunshun is quoting an anonymous MOFA official as saying that the flights represented "Go ahead, make my day" message from the U.S. to China), fine. The Japanese people and those who care about Japan should not repeat the mistake.
I see the ADIZ as a lose-lose for china.
They can adopt the hardline position and intercept planes in the zone, and end up having to shoot one down and become international outcasts, or they need to not enforce it to the degree they have specified and end up looking week internally and externally.
I think this is another example of the various parts of the government not talking to each other.
"U.S. military aircraft never announce their entry into the ADIZs of other nations"
But other countries don't require aircraft entering their ADIZs to identify themselves, unless they are proceeding to enter territorial airspace. With its ADIZ, China does. So entering China's ADIZ unannounced even though you have no intention of proceeding to Chinese airspace has different implications compared to, say, entering Japan's.
That, combined with the Hagel denunciation, made the B-52 flight more significant than "just flying."
Anonymous #2 -
No matter what rules China may set regarding transit of its new ADIZ, in whatever direction, the Pentagon view remains what it was before the declaration of the zone: "we do not provide flight information or identification unless we want to."
Post a Comment