China announced on Thursday it was deploying warplanes in the area for surveillance and defense of a zone it claims contains parts of its territory.
(excerpted and expanded from BBC News)
The US announced that it expects its civilian aircraft to observe China’s newly imposed air defense zone covering islands claimed as the territory of Japan. South Korea has complained to China that the ADIZ also overlaps its own similar defence zone, and encompasses an underwater rock that is South Korean territory, the Ieodo rock. Taiwan also claims the islands that are directly off of its shores. The disputed group of uninhabited islands have been controlled by Japan since WWII and are part of the chain including Okinawa.
Japan has instructed its aircraft not to observe China’s rules. But a number of regional commercial airlines – including Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Korean Air – have said they will comply. .
China’s unilateral establishment of an air defence zone (ADIZ) has caused widespread anger, with the US state department calling it “an attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the East China Sea” which will “raise regional tensions and increase the risk of miscalculation, confrontation and accidents”.
The US added : “Our expectation of operations by US carriers … does not indicate U.S. government acceptance of China’s requirements for operating in the newly declared ADIZ.”
