متنازعہ فضائی حدود میں جاپان، کوریا اور امریکہ کے کے ہوائی جہازوں کی پرواز کے بعد اپنے ہوائی جہازوں کے جنگی بیڑے کو روانہ کردیا ہے۔۔۔۔
Concern Mounts in China's Air-Defense Zone - Beijing Sends Fighter Jets, Even as It Dials Back Warnings
China responded on Thursday to growing international defiance of its new air-defense zone in the East China Sea both by sending advanced fighter jets to the area and trying to play down any threat of military retaliation—underlining the confusion and escalated tension over the territorial dispute.
The announcement by China's air force that it had sent fighters and an early-warning aircraft to patrol the zone came just a few hours after Japan and South Korea, following the U.S.'s lead, said their military aircraft had flown into the zone without notifying Beijing over the past few days, and would continue to do so.
The U.S. challenged the zone's credibility on Tuesday by sending in two B-52 bombers without informing Chinese authorities, who had warned when they declared the zone on Saturday that such incursions would be met with unspecified "defensive emergency measures."
China's move to enforce an air-defense zone has several countries in the region concerned. The WSJ's Deborah Kan speaks to Scott Harold of RAND Corp., a global think tank, on why China may be playing the wrong hand in its play for islands in the East China Sea.
The conflicting signals from Beijing highlight the challenge the Chinese leadership faces as it tries to contain the international fallout from its surprise decision to establish the zone, without appearing weak in front of an increasingly nationalistic domestic audience.
China's apparent easing of its original warning suggests its fighters will monitor and escort rather than repel U.S., Japanese and South Korean aircraft that violate the rules of the zone, which covers islands claimed by Beijing and Tokyo, said Chinese and foreign analysts. The spat over the uninhabited islands in the East China Sea—known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China—has escalated over the past year.
To maintain its credibility internationally and domestically, China is likely to increase such escorts, a move that in such a tense political climate greatly increases the risk of an aerial incident that could spiral into a military clash, analysts and diplomats said.
A defense ministry spokesman said China had "identified" all foreign aircraft entering the Air Defense Identification Zone over an area covering islands at the center of a fierce territorial dispute between Tokyo and Beijing.
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Disputed islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Associated Press
Col. Yang Yujun, a defense ministry spokesman, told a monthly news conference that the ADIZ wasn't a no-fly zone or an extension of China's airspace. He said it was "incorrect" to suggest China could shoot down planes in the zone.
China's declaration of the new zone has sparked protests from the U.S. and several of its allies, many of whom see it as an escalatory move that could increase the risk of a military confrontation in the region. At the same time, Chinese leaders are facing pressure from a nationalistic public at home, with many social-media users asking why the military didn't respond to the Japanese, South Korean or U.S. incursions.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will use his trip to Asia in the coming week to reassure top allies that the U.S. is committed to the region while also seeking to reduce tensions arising from China's recent assertion of regional authority, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
Col. Yang also provided a slight elaboration of the zone's rules, which state that all aircraft there must identify themselves and their flight plans and obey instructions from the Chinese military or face unspecified defensive measures.
"As to what kind of specific measures will be taken, that will be decided based on the specific situation and the extent of the threat being faced at the time," he said, adding, "The Chinese side has carried out prompt identification of every country's aircraft that has entered the East China Sea ADIZ, and we have a firm grasp of the situation regarding relevant aircraft."
On Wednesday, China's defense ministry also responded with relative restraint to the U.S. bombers' flight, saying it had monitored and identified the planes, without specifying how or from where.
On Thursday, air-force spokesman Col. Shen Jinke said China had sent one KJ-2000 early warning aircraft and several fighter jets including Russian-made SU-30s and Chinese made J-11s into the zone, according to the defense ministry's website. The SU-30 is one of China's most advanced fighter jets, while the KJ-2000, which incorporates Chinese early warning systems in a Russian-made airframe, is a rough equivalent of the U.S. AWACS aircraft. Col. Shen said the planes had been sent to conduct "normalized" patrols of the zone and to "strengthen monitoring of air targets." He didn't say whether they had come into contact with any foreign planes.
Defense and international-relations analysts and Western and Asian diplomats said the Chinese government was still sending conflicting signals over how it intends to enforce the zone, which overlaps with similar ones established by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
China's ambiguity may be a deliberate attempt to make the U.S. and its allies wary of continuing military flights into the zone without observing its regulations, the analysts and diplomats said. But it could also stem from poor planning and a failure to consult other countries or experts, they said.
Another problem is that the rules say they apply to all aircraft but don't affect civilian flights, a contradiction that leaves it unclear how foreign carriers should respond.
Some analysts also expressed surprise that China had antagonized South Korea, which has had testy relations with Japan in recent months, and has taken a relatively cooperative approach toward a dispute with Beijing over a submerged rock.
South Korea's defense ministry said it sent a military jet on Tuesday into the air space around the rock that is claimed by Beijing and Seoul and lies within China's new zone. It didn't say whether China responded to the flight.
Qin Gang, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a regular news briefing on Thursday that China had "noted the relevant situation."
South Korea also asked China at a meeting Thursday to change the boundaries of the new ADIZ, but China refused, said South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok. He said Seoul was now considering expanding its own zone. China's Foreign Ministry didn't respond to a request for comment on that.
In Tokyo, meanwhile, a spokesman for the Japan Coast Guard said it had continued flights in the area without notifying China and hadn't encountered any resistance. "After China claimed an air self-defense zone, we have conducted regular surveillance activities," said Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief government spokesman. "We have no intention to stop our activities out of consideration for China."
International-relations and defense experts said the problem with China's zone wasn't that it had been established unilaterally. Many countries, including the U.S., have done the same. What is unusual and controversial about China's zone is that it covers disputed territory, they said.
"China's probably calculating that this is incrementally making other countries accustomed to accepting its authority in international air space," said Rory Medcalf, an expert on Asia security issues at Australia's Lowy Institute for International Policy. "It's looking like a potential liability because it could end up losing diplomatically and at the same time lose credibility with its own population."
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