{"id":11992,"date":"2013-11-25T09:12:02","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T09:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=11992"},"modified":"2013-11-25T09:12:02","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T09:12:02","slug":"japan-chinas-new-air-defense-zone-very-dangerous-escalation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=11992","title":{"rendered":"Japan: China\u2019s new air defense zone \u2018very dangerous\u2019 escalation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"senkaku\"<\/a>The government branded as \u201cvery dangerous\u201d China\u2019s announcement Saturday that it has set up an East China Sea air defense identification zone that includes the Japan-held Senkaku Islands.<\/p>\n

The Chinese Defence Ministry said the zone was created to \u201cguard against potential air threats,\u201d but the move will only inflame a bitter sovereignty row over the islets, which China claims as Diaoyu.<\/p>\n

Later Saturday, China scrambled air force jets, including fighter planes, to patrol the new zone.<\/p>\n

Its outline is shown on the ministry website and a Chinese state media Twitter account \u2014 pic.twitter.com\/4a2vC6PH8O. It covers a wide area of the East China Sea between South Korea and Taiwan, and includes the Senkaku islets.<\/p>\n

In Tokyo, Junichi Ihara, head of the Foreign Ministry\u2019s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, lodged a protest by phone with Han Zhiqiang, a minister at the Chinese Embassy, according to a statement issued by the ministry.<\/p>\n

Ihara was quoted as telling Han that Japan can \u201cnever accept the zone set up by China,\u201d as it includes the Senkakus. He further said the new zone will \u201cescalate\u201d already fraught bilateral ties over the uninhabited but potentially resource-rich islet chain, branding China\u2019s move \u201cvery dangerous,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki plans to summon Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua as early as possible Monday to state Tokyo\u2019s position on the matter.<\/p>\n

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said Saturday that the establishment of the zone, which China said entered into force as of 10 a.m. Saturday, was aimed at \u201csafeguarding state sovereignty, territorial land and air security, and maintaining flight order.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a necessary measure in China\u2019s exercise of self-defense rights. It has no particular target and will not affect the freedom of flight in relevant airspace,\u201d Yang said in a statement on the ministry\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina will take timely measures to deal with air threats and unidentified flying objects from the sea, including identification, monitoring, control and disposition, and it hopes all relevant sides positively cooperate and jointly maintain flying safety,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Along with the new zone, the Chinese ministry released a set of aircraft identification rules that it says must be followed by all aircraft entering the area, under penalty of intervention by China\u2019s military.<\/p>\n

Aircraft are now expected to provide their flight path, clearly mark their nationality and maintain two-way radio communication in order to \u201crespond in a timely and accurate manner to identification inquiries\u201d from Chinese authorities.<\/p>\n

Shen Jinke, spokesman for the People\u2019s Liberation Army Air Force, reported late Saturday that it had conducted a sweep of the area using early warning aircraft and fighter jets. \u201cThe patrol is in line with international common practices, and the normal flight of international flights will not be affected,\u201d Shen said.<\/p>\n

Four Chinese Coast Guard boats briefly entered Japan\u2019s territorial waters around the Senkakus on Friday, after multiple incursions at the end of October and the beginning of this month further aggravated tensions between Beijing and Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera in late October said the repeated incursions are a threat to peace and fall in a \u201cgray zone (between) peacetime and an emergency situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few days earlier, his Chinese counterpart had threatened Japan that any bid to shoot down China\u2019s drones would constitute \u201can act of war.\u201d That move came after a report said Japan had drafted plans to destroy foreign drones that encroach on its airspace if warnings to leave are ignored.<\/p>\n

Sino-Japanese relations have remained icy for more than a year because of the Senkakus dispute, which was revived when Japan purchased three of the five main islets in September 2012, effectively nationalizing the entire chain. Since then, China has regularly sent coast guard vessels to the islets, which lie 400 km west of Okinawa and 200 km northeast of Taiwan. – AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government branded as \u201cvery dangerous\u201d China\u2019s announcement Saturday that it has set up an East China Sea air defense identification zone that includes the Japan-held Senkaku Islands. The Chinese Defence Ministry said the zone was created to \u201cguard against potential air threats,\u201d but the move will only inflame a bitter sovereignty row over the … Continue reading “Japan: China\u2019s new air defense zone \u2018very dangerous\u2019 escalation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,123],"tags":[7591,7589,7590,3442,7592],"class_list":["post-11992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-diaoyu","tag-east-china-sea","tag-japan-held-senkaku-islands","tag-south-korea","tag-taiwan"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/senkaku.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11994,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11992\/revisions\/11994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}