Air zone: Biden to seek clarity on China's intentions

Vice-President Joe Biden will raise the United States' concerns with China's leaders and seek clarity on their intentions in setting up an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) during his three-nation Asian tour next week.

While Washington has called the new zone destabilising, senior administration officials stressed that Mr Biden will not be in Beijing to deliver a demarche, but to make the broad point that an "emerging pattern of Chinese behaviour" is unsettling neighbours.

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, in a phone call to Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera on Wednesday, said the new zone "raises the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculation".

The ADIZ announced last Saturday overlaps part of Japan's zone and covers disputed islands in the East China Sea known as Senkaku to the Japanese and Diaoyu to the Chinese.

Besides praising Tokyo's restraint, Mr Hagel also assured its ally that the US-Japan security pact covers the disputed islands.

With the new zone, all aircraft passing through it must submit their flight plans to the Chinese.

That requirement was tested early this week when two unarmed US B-52 bombers crossed the zone unannounced.

Tokyo also instructed its commercial carriers not to comply with the new rules.

Senior administration officials said China's move raised a num- ber of questions, and Beijing needs to "clarify its intentions".

"We are talking about international airspace. We are not talking about over-flights of sovereign territory, and so there is legitimate interest by the United States, as well as by the international community," a senior official said during a conference call on the Vice-President's trip to China, Japan and South Korea.

While in Beijing, Mr Biden will "discuss the issue of how China operates in international space, and how China deals with areas of disagreement with its neighbours", the official added.

China's approach to maritime disputes includes using the so- called "cabbage strategy", where it surrounds contested territory with layers of ships in an attempt to change de facto control, as it has done in the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, American airlines have been urged to take steps to stay safe while the US seeks clarification on whether the new rules apply to commercial flights, US State Department spokesman Jen Psaki said.

But she would not say if this means that US airlines should file their flight plans.

Joining in the chorus of criticism, the new US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy used her first speech in Tokyo on Wednesday to warn China that its air defence zone "undermines security and constitutes an attempt to change the status quo in the East China Sea".

Former US ambassador to China Jon Huntsman told CNN that the ADIZ is not only an attempt by China to delegitimise Japan's claim on the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, but also a bid to "drive a wedge between the United States and its ally Japan".

simlinoi@sph.com.sg

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