Fallout From China's New Air Defense Zone

On Dec. 12, the United States reassured Japan that Washington does not officially recognize China's controversial new air defense identification zone, or ADIZ. The message came only a few days after South Korea expanded its own ADIZ for the first time since the 1950s in response to China's declared ADIZ. China's ADIZ overlaps with those of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The unsolicited expansion has generated controversy, especially with Japan because China's ADIZ also extends over the disputed Japanese-controlled Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, over which China claims sovereignty. For its part, South Korea's ADIZ expansion captures Ieodo Reef (known as Suyan Rock in Chinese, a small partially submerged rock in South Korea's exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea. Though not in Korean territorial waters, South Korea operates an oceanic research station and helipad on the rock, which has been the subject of prior disputes with China over exclusive economic zones (the rock currently falls under Japan's ADIZ). Seoul's expanded air zone covers other islands such as Marado and Hongdo, which also fall under the Japanese ADIZ, though, in a show of relative solidarity among U.S. allies, Japan so far has not quarreled with the South Koreans about their ADIZ expansion.

At the same time, however, South Korea like the United States has given permission to its commercial airlines to comply with China's ADIZ. The United States seems prepared to continue striking a balance between officially refusing to recognize the zone and unofficially urging commercial carriers to comply with Chinese rules for the sake of the airlines' own safety. This balancing act, which Taiwan has also adopted, has created some dissonance in Japan's government, which ordered Japanese commercial airlines not to comply with Chinese rules. Meanwhile, U.S. military aircraft -- along with Japanese, South Korean and Taiwanese aircraft -- have refused to comply, routinely flying in and through the area without sending warning or identification, much as they would before. It seems that the U.S. position will focus more heavily on how aggressively the Chinese attempt to enforce the zone, rather than on China's mere right to declare it. So far, Beijing has not sought to enforce the ADIZ aggressively, partly because it lacks the comprehensive capabilities to do so.