Japan glad that Biden has voiced concerns

Although US Vice-President Joe Biden failed to show support for Japan's demand for China to take down its new air defence zone, the Japanese are satisfied that he conveyed American and Japanese concerns directly to China's top leaders.

Both Tokyo and Washington do not recognise China's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) which overlaps those of Japan and South Korea and also covers disputed territories, angering Tokyo and Seoul.

Japan was, however, unable to persuade the United States to issue a joint statement calling on China to scrap the ADIZ, when the Vice-President came here earlier this week at the start of a three-nation swing.

In his talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday, the Vice-President reportedly did not touch on the Japanese leader's call for Beijing to scrap its ADIZ in its entirety. Mr Abe also failed to persuade the US to join Japan in telling airline companies not to comply with Beijing's demand for flight data when entering the zone.

Recognising the right of countries to declare their own ADIZs, Washington has only gone as far as to ask Beijing to rescind its contentious ADIZ procedures.

Beijing wants all civilian aircraft to submit flight plans even when they are just passing through the ADIZ, or risk being hit with "defensive emergency measures". US officials took pains to stress there was no "daylight" between Washington and Tokyo over the issue. But the advice the two countries give to their commercial airlines clearly differs. While Washington advised US airlines to abide by air notices issued by foreign governments as before, but without specifically mentioning China, Tokyo has told Japanese carriers not to comply with Beijing's demand.

Nonetheless, Mr Abe received assurance from Mr Biden that Washington was right behind Tokyo on this issue and he would convey their concerns "with great specificity" in talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, his next stop after Tokyo.

Mr Biden also urged Japan and China to set up "crisis management mechanisms and effective channels of communication" to ease tensions.

Although Mr Biden did not confront his Chinese hosts on the ADIZ issue in public, he is believed to have pressed Chinese leaders not to implement the ADIZ during closed-door meetings.

Said the largest-circulating Yomiuri Shimbun daily: "What Mr Biden told Beijing is in accordance with the contents of his talks with Mr Abe... There is meaning in directly conveying to Mr Xi the strong concerns of Japan and the US in regard to the way China established the ADIZ and its administration, which departed from international practice."

The Asahi Shimbun concurred.

"It is helpful for Japan to have closed ranks with the US, which is playing the role of stabiliser, to deal with the ADIZ issue in a level-headed manner," said the influential daily.

Experts said Mr Biden did all that he could without sacrificing Washington's strategic vision for US-Chinese ties. "Mr Biden apparently did not ask China to scrap the ADIZ. But he told Mr Xi that the US does not recognise the zone and also reportedly urged China to help ease regional tensions," said Professor Koichi Sato of J.F. Oberlin University in Tokyo. "That was the maximum he could do as Vice-President," added the China scholar.

wengkin@sph.com.sg

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