China yesterday said it let two US B-52 bombers fly unhindered through its newly declared air defense zone in the East China Sea on Tuesday, despite its earlier threat to take defensive measures against unidentified foreign aircraft.
The US flights, which tested the Chinese zone for the first time since it was declared on Saturday, raised questions about Beijing’s determination to enforce its requirement that foreign aircraft identify themselves and accept Chinese instructions. China’s lack of any action suggested that it was merely playing out a diplomatic game to establish ownership over the area rather than provoke an international incident.
The flights followed days of angry rhetoric and accusations over Beijing’s move, designed to assert Chinese claims to a group of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan.
Photo: EPA
The US and Japan have said they do not acknowledge the zone, and Taiwan and South Korea have also rejected it.
A Chinese Ministry of National Defense statement said the US planes were detected and monitored as they flew through the area for 2 hours and 22 minutes. It said all aircraft flying through the zone would be monitored and that “China has the capability to exercise effective control over the relevant airspace.”
Asked repeatedly about the incident at a regularly scheduled briefing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said it had been handled according to procedures laid out in the Saturday statement, but offered no specifics.
“Different situations will be dealt with according to that statement,” Qin said.
The US, which has hundreds of military aircraft based in the region, described the flights as a training mission unrelated to China’s announcement of the zone.
US officials said the two unarmed B-52 bombers took off from their home base in Guam around midday and were in the zone that encompasses the disputed islands for less than an hour before returning to their base, adding that the aircraft encountered no problems.
The bomber flights came after US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said China’s move appeared to be an attempt to change the status quo in the East China Sea.
“This will raise regional tensions and increase the risk of miscalculation, confrontation and accidents,” she told reporters.
Beijing’s move fits a pattern of putting teeth behind its territorial claims and is seen as potentially leading to dangerous encounters depending on how vigorously China enforces it — and how cautious it is when intercepting aircraft from Japan, the US and other countries.
Chinese reaction to the US bomber flights was predictably angry, with some recalling the 2001 collision between a Chinese fighter and a US surveillance plane in international airspace off China’s southeastern coast — the kind of accident some fear China’s new policy could make more likely.
The Chinese pilot, Wang Wei (王偉), was killed in the crash and the US crew forced to make a landing on Hainan island, where they were held for 10 days and repeatedly interrogated before being released.
“Let’s not repeat the humiliation of Wang Wei. Make good preparations to counterattack,” wrote Zheng Daojin (鄭道錦), a reporter with Xinhua news agency on his Weibo microblog.
Others criticized the government’s handling of what they termed a battle of psychological pressure and international public opinion.
“China is terrible at telling its side of the story. The silent one is the loser so why don’t they better explain our response to the American bomber flight,” wrote Hu Xijin (胡錫進), editor of the state-run Global Times, on his blog.
Chinese academics, who often serve as ad-hoc government spokesmen, criticized Tuesday’s flights as a crude show of force and said Beijing was not looking for a fight.
“It’s not that China didn’t want to enforce its demands, but how do you expect China to react?” said Zhu Feng (朱鋒), an international security expert at Peking University.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source