China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday.
Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said.
The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said.
Photo: Shao Jing, Xinhua news agency via AP
The airspace reserved in the alert is hundreds of kilometers north of Taiwan and extends south from the Yellow Sea facing South Korea, to waters of the East China Sea facing Japan, the WSJ said, citing information from the US Federal Aviation Administration.
The reserved airspace has no vertical ceiling and is designated within NOTAMs as “SFC-UNL” (surface unlimited), it said, adding that while civil aviation seems unaffected, it would take coordination for aircraft to transit such areas.
Ray Powell, director of Stanford University’s SeaLight Project, which tracks Chinese maritime activity, told the paper that the SFC-UNL with “an extraordinary 40-day duration” combined with no announced exercise makes the alerts notable.
“That suggests not a discrete exercise, but a sustained operational readiness posture — and one that China apparently doesn’t feel the need to explain,” the WSJ quoted Powell as saying.
If the reserved airspace is linked to exercises, it “would represent a meaningful shift in how Beijing uses airspace control as a tool of military signaling,” he told the paper.
The Chinese Ministry of National Defense and the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration have not issued statements about the NOTAMs.
Past Chinese drills have focused on controlling routes that could be used by the US military in the event of a conflict over Taiwan, which the Journal said was not unusual.
The airspace could “provide an opportunity to practice the kinds of air combat maneuvers that would be required” to control routes that might be used by the US military in a potential conflict over Taiwan, the report quoted US Naval War College China Maritime Studies Institute director Christopher Sharman as saying.
China could be increasing its military presence while US attention is focused on the Middle East, the article said, citing a senior Taiwanese security official.
The airspace reservation is “clearly aimed at Japan,” as China attempts to deter US allies and erode US military influence in the Indo-Pacific region, the official said.
Lin Ying-yu (林穎佑), an associate professor in Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, yesterday said that April is typically the peak period for Chinese military exercises.
That the air warning zones are closer to Japan and South Korea, suggest that potential exercises are not necessarily aimed at Taiwan nor are they related to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit to China today.
China might resume “joint combat readiness patrols” to pressure Taiwan during or after Cheng’s potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), signaling that its military pressure and deterrence remain in place regardless of the state of cross-strait communications, he said.
Additional reporting Huang Chin-hsuan
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