China Re-Escalates, Deploys Warplanes To Air Defense Zone

China's announcement to establish an Air Defense Identification Zone in East China Sea has drawn criticism from the United States and Japan, yet their blame is wrong.

 

Their logic is simple: they can do it while China can not, which could be described with a Chinese saying, " the magistrates are free to burn down houses while the common people are forbidden even to light lamps."

 

It is known to all that the United States is among the first to set up an air defense zone in 1950, and later more than 20 countries have followed suit, which Washington has taken for granted.

 

However, as soon as China started to do it, Washington immediately voiced various " concerns." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday voiced concerns over the zone, fearing it might " constitute an attempt to change the status quo in the East China Sea," and a White House spokesman on Monday called the Chinese announcement over the weekend " unnecessarily inflammatory."

 

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Japan set up such a zone in the 1960s and it even one-sidedly allowed the zone to cover China's Diaoyu Islands. But when China set up the zone covering the Diaoyu Islands, Tokyo immediately announced it " unacceptable" and Abe even called China's move " dangerous." It is totally absurd and unreasonable.

 

In one word, both Washington and Tokyo are pursuing double standards.

It took about 10 hours for the carrier and its four escort ships to get through the strait separating the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

 

The Liaoning entered the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday afternoon after it left its home port in Qingdao of east China's Shandong Province on Tuesday for the South China Sea on a scientific and training mission.

 

It was escorted by two missile destroyers, the Shenyang and Shijiazhuang, and two missile frigates, the Yantai and Weifang.

 

" During the voyage, the carrier has kept a high degree of vigilance against approaches from foreign warships and aircraft, according to Liaoning Captain Zhang Zheng. This is the first time the carrier has conducted a cross-sea training voyage and passed through the Taiwan Strait since it was commissioned into the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy in September last year, according to Zhang."

China has sent warplanes to its newly declared air defence zone in the East China Sea, state media reports.

 

The vast zone, announced last week, covers territory claimed by China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

 

China has said all planes transiting the zone must file flight plans and identify themselves, or face " defensive emergency measures" . But Japan, South Korea and the US have all since flown military aircraft through the area.

 

China's state news agency Xinhua quoted an air force colonel as saying the the warplanes had carried out routine patrols. The zone includes islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, which are claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan.

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China's state news agency Xinhua quoted air force spokesman Col Shen Jinke as saying several fighter jets and an early warning aircraft had been deployed to carry out routine patrols as " a defensive measure and in line with international common practices" .

 

He said the country's air force would remain on high alert and would take measures to deal with all air threats to protect national security.

 

In Xinhua's Chinese language version of the article, the colonel said the aircraft would " strengthen the monitoring of targets in the air defence zone and do their duty" .

China on Thursday confirmed the smooth operation of flights over the country's newly established Air Defense Identification Zone in the East China Sea. Everybody can see that flights over the zone have been normal and safe, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a daily press briefing, adding that in particular, civil flights have not been impacted at all.

 

" We expect all sides, including aviation companies, to actively coordinate with us and jointly safeguard flight safety," Qin said, adding that aviation companies from many countries have submitted flight applications to the Chinese aviation authority.

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