Resolving the phony battle of the competing ADIZs

Resolving the phony battle of the competing ADIZs

22 December 2013
Sourabh Gupta, Samuels International | http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2013/12/22/resolving-the-phony-battle-of-the-competing-adizs/

On 23 November, China announced the establishment of its East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ). The policy, its announcement, and the prompt and selective nature of its implementation bear many of the quintessential hallmarks of Chinese statecraft.
The policy is intended to deliver a shock to the adversary — that being Japan in this case. Although Beijing avers that the ADIZ was drawn with no target country in mind, the zone only marginally overlaps with Taiwan’s and South Korea’s ADIZs (the Korean ADIZ overlap area has since been enlarged by Seoul). No Chinese military aircraft has yet flown into these overlapping zones. By contrast, Chinese surveillance aircraft have flown across the breadth and (most of the) length of the overlapping portion of Tokyo’s ADIZ.