US asks commercial airlines to respect China’s defence zone

The United States is now asking its commercial airlines to adhere to China’s new air defence zone after challenging the new zone with military flights along with its allies Japan and South Korea.
In a report on Saturday, The New York Times said while the United States continued to defy China by sending military planes into the zone unannounced, administration officials said they had made the decision to urge civilian planes to adhere to Beijing’s new rules in part because they worried about an unintended confrontation.

Although the officials made clear that the administration rejects China’s unilateral declaration of control of the airspace over a large area of the East China Sea, the guidance to the airlines could be interpreted in the region as a concession in the battle of wills with China.
“The US government generally expects that US carriers operating internationally will operate consistent with” notice requirements “issued by foreign countries,” the State Department said in a statement, adding that that “does not indicate US government acceptance of China’s requirements.”
The newspaper said the decision contrasted with that of Japan’s government this week, when it asked several Japanese airlines, which were voluntarily following China’s rules, to stop, apparently out of fear that complying with the rules would add legitimacy to Chinese claims to islands that sit below the now contested airspace. China’s newly declared zone, experts say, is intended mainly to whittle away at Japan’s hold on the islands, which it has long administered.
AFP adds: US military chiefs have insisted they will not change their operations despite China scrambling fighter jets to monitor American and Japanese aircraft in Beijing’s newly declared air defence zone.
“We have flights routinely transiting international airspace throughout the Pacific, including the area China is including in their ADIZ,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.
“These flights are consistent with long-standing and well-known US freedom of navigation policies that are applied in many areas of operation around the world. I can confirm that the US has and will continue to operate in the area as normal.”
Japanese airlines, under pressure from Tokyo, stopped following China’s new rules on Wednesday, after initially complying.
In its evening edition Saturday, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said Japan’s two biggest airlines were unlikely to change their stance even after the US announcement that commercial airlines should observe China’s demand.
Japan Airlines said it had “no plan to change our stance at the moment” while All Nippon Airways said it would follow instructions from the transport ministry, the daily reported the two companies as saying.
Chinese air force spokesman Shen Jinke said that several combat aircraft were scrambled to “verify the identities” of US and Japanese aircraft entering the air defence zone, according to Xinhua.
The Chinese planes, which included at least two fighter jets, identified two US surveillance aircraft and 10 Japanese aircraft including an F-15 warplane, Shen said.
Japan and South Korea both said Thursday they had disregarded the ADIZ, showing a united front after US B-52 bombers also entered the area.
Despite the scrambling of jets referred to in China’s state media, Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera on Saturday said there were no “peculiar developments”.
“We do not recognise there have been peculiar developments that we should disclose such as one where aircraft suddenly came close as the Chinese side announced yesterday,” he said.
“We have been making our utmost efforts to be vigilant and we will continue,” he added.
Onodera also called on China to use “common sense” over the air defence zone.
“It is important for both sides to respond in a calm manner,” he said, according to the Kyodo news agency. “We want (China) to deal with this issue according to common sense in the international community”.