Airlines Urged by U.S. to Give Notice to China
By PETER BAKER and JANE PERLEZ
Published: November 29, 2013 314 Comments
WASHINGTON — Even as China scrambled fighter jets to enforce its newly
declared air defense zone, the Obama administration said on Friday that
it was advising American commercial airlines to comply with China’s
demands to be notified in advance of flights through the area.
The New York Times
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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 U.S. government generally expects that U.S. 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 U.S. government acceptance of China’s requirements.”
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.
On Saturday, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said, “We will not
comment on what other countries are doing with regard to filing flight
plans.” It was not immediately clear if the Obama administration had
notified Japan, a close ally, of its decision.
An official at Japan’s Transport Ministry said it had no immediate change to its advice to Japanese airlines.
The American decision drew criticism from some quarters. Stephen Yates, a
former Asia adviser to Dick Cheney when he was vice president, said it
was “a bad move” that would undercut allies in the region that take a
different stance.
But Strobe Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state under Bill
Clinton and now president of the Brookings Institution, said it was
important to avoid an accident while drawing a firm line. “The principal
option is to be extremely clear that disputes” over territory “must be
resolved through diplomacy and not unilateral action,” he said.
American officials said they began having talks with airlines on
Wednesday and characterized the guidance Friday as simply following
established international air protocols independent of any political
deliberations. The American announcement came on the same day that
Chinese state news media said that China sent jets aloft and that they
identified two American surveillance planes and 10 Japanese aircraft in
the air defense zone the country declared last weekend.
Although there was no indication that China’s air force showed any
hostile intent, the move raised tensions. The Chinese had also sent jets
on patrol into the contested airspace the day before, but Xinhua, the
state-run news agency, indicated that the planes on Friday were
scrambled specifically to respond to foreign jets in the area.
Earlier in the week, the United States sent unarmed B-52s into the area,
and they proceeded unimpeded. China then appeared to back down somewhat
from its initial declaration that planes must file advance flight plans
or face possible military action.
The administration’s decision on Friday underscored the delicate
position President Obama finds himself in, drawn into a geopolitical
dispute that will test how far he is willing to go to contain China’s
rising regional ambitions.
China’s move thrust the United States into the middle of the already
prickly territorial clash between Beijing and Tokyo, a position the
administration had avoided for months even while reiterating that the
mutual defense treaty with Japan covers the islands. After the Chinese
declaration last weekend, American officials feared that, if left
unchallenged, the Chinese action would lead to ever greater claims
elsewhere in the Pacific region.
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Airlines Urged by U.S. to Give Notice to China
Published: November 29, 2013 314 Comments
(Page 2 of 2)
But with planes flying so fast and in such proximity, the
administration’s worries grew that an accident or an unintended
confrontation could spiral out of control. A midair collision between a
Chinese fighter jet and an American spy plane off the coast of China in
2001 killed the fighter pilot and forced the spy plane to make an
emergency landing on Hainan Island, setting off a diplomatic episode
until Beijing released the American crew and sent the plane back, broken
into parts.
Multimedia
Related
-
China Patrols Air Zone Over Disputed Islands (November 29, 2013)
-
After Challenges, China Appears to Backpedal on Air Zone (November 28, 2013)
-
China’s Move Puts Airspace in Spotlight (November 28, 2013)
Readers’ Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
“The challenge here, as with April 2001, is when you have an unexpected
crisis, things escalate very, very quickly without any plans for
de-escalation,” said Jon M. Huntsman Jr., Mr. Obama’s first ambassador
to China. “That’s one of the big challenges we have in the U.S.-China
relationship.”
One of the biggest challenges for Mr. Obama will be navigating the
complicated personalities of leaders in Tokyo and Beijing. Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, a strong nationalist, has vowed to stand
firm against any Chinese encroachments, while President Xi Jinping of
China has recently taken over as leader and has promised to advance a
strong foreign policy meant to win his country more recognition as an
international power.
The two countries have been at odds for years over the uninhabited
islands known as Diaoyu by the Chinese and Senkaku by the Japanese. The
United States does not take a position on the dispute.
Although administration officials believe China’s actions are mainly
meant to give it an advantage in its struggle with Japan over the
islands, experts on Asia say they also fit China’s larger goal of
establishing itself as the dominant power in the region, displacing the
United States.
Administration officials said they decided to proceed with routine
military training and surveillance flights so as not to legitimize
China’s assertion of control over the airspace or encourage it to
establish a similar air zone over the South China Sea, where it has
other territorial disputes. China had said it expected to set up other
air defense zones, and experts said they expected one to cover that sea.
“We don’t want this to be the first in what would be a series of
assertive moves,” said an administration official, who insisted on
anonymity to discuss a delicate diplomatic matter. “The whole area’s
fraught.”
Mr. Obama is sending Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to the region
next week, when he will meet with Mr. Xi and Mr. Abe as well as South
Korea’s leader. Although the trip was previously scheduled, it will put
Mr. Biden in the center of the dispute, and aides said he would deliver a
message of caution to both sides to avoid escalation.
Many countries, including the United States and Japan, have air defense
zones, but the coordinates of the Chinese zone overlap those of Japan,
South Korea and Taiwan.
Peter Dutton, the director of the China Maritime Studies Institute at
the United States Naval War College, said the new air zone also gives
China a legal structure to intercept American surveillance flights in
international airspace, which have long irritated Beijing. “It is clear
that the Chinese do not seek regional stability on any level,” he said.
“They intend to be disruptive in order to remake the Asian regional
system in accordance with their preferences.”
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