China’s air defence zone annoys its neighbours
With the imposition of an Air Defence Identification Zone in the East China Sea, China has unnecessarily added fuel to a fire that has been raging due to Beijing's increased assertiveness in the region. The move is, of course, designed to poke its rivals in the eye. China's ADIZ clashes with that of Japan's and covers the contested Senkaku/Diaoyu islands that Tokyo administers but Beijing claims as it own. It is also a taunt to the US, for long the dominant military power in the Asia Pacific, that China is an equally big boy in the region. Finally, it is a message to ‘lesser' rivals such as Vietnam and the Philippines, with whom also China has raked up territorial disputes, that they could be next in line — in other words, that a similar defensive zone could also be set up in the South China Sea. Expectedly then, there has been much brouhaha over China's ADIZ. But the latest move is almost entirely of a symbolic nature. There are no international treaties that govern the establishment of such a zone (any country can do it — apart from the US and Japan, India also has its own ADIZ) and much depends on how individual nations choose to enforce it. Interestingly, therefore, the response of most countries has also been largely symbolic in nature. Japan has possibly taken the hardest line in this case — two of its carriers, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, have refused to inform the Chinese in advance or file flight plans as requested by Beijing. It has also flown military jets through the zone. America, on the other hand, also flew two B-52 jets through the zone but has asked its civilian carriers to follow to “operate consistent with Notices to Airmen issued by foreign countries”. Interestingly, the US ADIZ is also applicable only to commercial, not military, traffic. Earlier this month, South Korea, which also has its own ADIZ and is now planning to expand it, too registered its protest by conducting air and sea drills near leodo Rock. Australia's Qantas Airline has agreed to follow ADIZ rules but Canberra hauled up the Chinese Ambassador to express its disapproval. Most Asian airlines have taken a middle-path approach by informing China of their flight plans but refusing to make any changes, if demanded. China, on its part, has also refrained from taking any real counter-measures. It is not reported to have taken action against non-compliant commercial carriers. Also, the Japanese, American or South Korean military overtures met with no hostile action — even though in recent days Beijing has moved its own fighter jets to enforce the ADIZ.
Apart from the provocative aspect, then, it is unclear what exactly China hopes to achieve from the ADIZ. For now, it seems like China set up the ADIZ simply because it wanted to show the world that it had the right to do so. While this in itself is not problematic, the hostile backdrop in which it has come threatens to upset an already unstable regional power dynamic.