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China Explains Handling of B-52 Flight as Tensions Escalate Amid Tensions Over Air Defense Zone, China’s Reaction Is Subdued
(about 9 hours later)
BEIJING — Responding to the flight of two unarmed American B-52 bombers through China’s new air defense zone over the East China Sea, the Chinese government said Wednesday it had monitored the planes but had decided not to take action despite the American refusal to identify the aircraft. BEIJING — China appeared to soften the rules it had issued for its new air defense zone, raising no objection on Wednesday to flights by two American B-52 bombers and Japanese airliners that ignored Beijing’s demands to file advance flight plans and saying only that it had monitored the planes.
At a briefing in Beijing, the Foreign Ministry said the quiet reaction to what was a clear test by the United States of the new zone was “in accordance” with the rules announced by the Chinese Defense Ministry. China’s response to foreign aircraft in the new zone would depend on “how big the threat” was, the spokesman said. The subdued initial response came just days after China warned of possible military action if planes did not comply with the rules for flights through a large stretch of airspace it now says it controls over the East China Sea.
Japan’s main civilian airlines also disregarded the new defense zone Wednesday, flying through the airspace claimed by China without notifying the Beijing authorities. The unarmed B-52s flew through the newly declared zone overnight Monday, and Japan’s main civilian airlines passed through Wednesday without notifying the authorities in Beijing. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways said they initially complied with China’s demands, but after a request from the Japanese government of Shinzo Abe, the conservative prime minister, they reversed their position.
Tensions in the region have escalated since Beijing published a map of a new “air defense identification zone” on Saturday that overlapped with an air defense zone of its archrival, Japan, increasing the possibility of an encounter between Japanese and Chinese aircraft and heightening the dispute over islands in the East China Sea that both countries claim. Offering more temperate remarks compared with the earlier bellicose statements of China’s Defense Ministry, a Foreign Ministry spokesman on Wednesday said Beijing would differentiate its reactions.
The Chinese declaration brought the United States, a treaty ally of Japan, directly into the dispute when Washington dispatched the B-52 bombers to the area overnight Monday. “We will make corresponding responses according to different situations and how big the threat is,” the spokesman said in explaining why China had refrained from implementing the regulations against the B-52s.
The abrupt declaration by China of its air defense zone unnerved Asian countries and was criticized by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan as a “dangerous attempt” to change the status quo in the East China Sea by coercion. He rejected a suggestion at a news briefing that the lack of enforcement on a first test by the United States made China look like a “paper tiger.”
China said it would require foreign aircraft flying through the zone to identify themselves or face possible military interception. The Pentagon said the B-52 bombers, which took off from Guam, were on a long-planned exercise, but Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that Washington had no intention of changing its procedures by notifying China of United States Air Force flights through the zone. In Tokyo, a Japanese official said the Chinese ambassador had told Japan’s Foreign Ministry that the new air defense zone rules were not intended to affect civilian flights and would not endanger their safety. The official, who is with the Transportation Ministry, declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The Chinese Ministry of Defense, which released the coordinates of the new zone, said Wednesday that it had monitored the flight path of the two B-52 bombers and noted that they flew about 125 miles east of the Diaoyu Islands from 11 a.m. to 1:22 p.m. on Tuesday. The disputed islands in the East China Sea are known as the Diaoyu by China and as the Senkaku by Japan. In a sign of the sudden seriousness of the issue, the new American ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, criticized China’s creation of the air defense zone in her first speech since assuming her post two weeks ago, saying “it only serves to increase tensions in the region.”
“China has the ability to implement effective management and control of the airspace,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Tensions in the region have escalated since China published a map of a new “Air Defense Identification Zone” on Saturday that overlapped with an air defense zone of its archrival, Japan, increasing the possibility of an encounter between Japanese and Chinese aircraft and heightening tensions over islands in the East China Sea that both countries claim.
A senior Chinese analyst, Shi Yinhong, who sometimes advises the Chinese government, acknowledged that the new air zone had worsened the already poisonous relations between China and Japan and represented a test of wills between Washington and Beijing. The disputed islands in the East China Sea are known as the Diaoyu by China and the Senkaku by Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Defense, which had released the coordinates of the new zone, said Wednesday that it had monitored the flight path of the two B-52s and said that they flew about 125 miles east of the islands.
The Chinese action comes on the eve of a visit by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to China, Japan and South Korea, a trip that was supposed to be dominated by economic issues but that will now probably be consumed by the fallout from the new air defense zone. By sending the B-52s to the area, the United States, a treaty ally of Japan, directly entered the dispute for the first time.
The relations among the three Asian countries — including tensions between the United States’ two main allies in the region, Japan and South Korea — were fraught even before Mr. Biden’s arrival. But China did not seem perturbed by the potential for added strains in the relationship with the United States over the new zone.
But most of all, Mr. Biden will now be faced with the reality of Beijing’s determination to show what kind of major power relationship it wants with the United States, namely one in which China is regarded as an equal. A senior Chinese analyst, Shi Yinhong, who sometimes advises the Chinese government, acknowledged that the new air zone had worsened the already poisonous relations between China and Japan, and represented a test of wills between the United States and China.
“China is engaged with Japan in a very intense confrontation, and the situation is very bad,” said Mr. Shi, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. “The risk of escalating to a major conflict is increased.” The Chinese action comes on the eve of a visit by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to China, Japan and South Korea, a trip that was supposed to be dominated by economic issues but will now most likely be consumed by the fallout from new air defense zone.
But Mr. Shi defended the new air zone as an expression of China’s determination to be regarded as a great power. The relations among the three countries — including between the United States’ two main Asian allies in the region, Japan and South Korea — were fraught even before Mr. Biden’s expected arrival. But Mr. Biden will now also be faced with the reality that Beijing is determined to show what kind of major power relationship it wants with the United States, namely one in which China is regarded as an equal.
“This is the first time since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 that it has expanded its strategic space beyond offshore waters,” he said. “This is the first time since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 that it has expanded its strategic space beyond offshore waters,” said Mr. Shi, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing.
That expansion of China’s strategic area provoked the United States to fly the two B-52 bombers through the new air zone without warning Beijing, he said. “That’s why Washington made such a harsh and firm reaction,” he said. “This represents America saying ‘no’ to China’s aspiration in the Western Pacific.”
“That’s why Washington made such a harsh and firm reaction,” he said. “This represents America saying ‘no’ to China’s aspiration in the western Pacific.” The new defense zone carried the hallmarks of President Xi Jinping’s tougher foreign policy that has alternated between trying to position China as a good neighbor to other Asian countries (except Japan) and making bold strategic moves, Mr. Shi said.
Mr. Shi said it was possible that President Xi Jinping, who has taken charge of China’s foreign policy in his first year in power and assumed a far more forceful posture than his predecessors, had underestimated the American reaction. “This is a negative development for a strong great power relationship,” between the United States and China, he said, referring to the strong American pushback.
“I believe Xi and his associates must have predicted the substance of the American reaction, whether they underestimated the details, I’m not sure,” he said. But Mr. Xi took the long view, he said, and knew there would be torturous turns and vicissitudes as China’s power grew.
On Chinese social media, users unleashed a barrage of nationalist commentary, congratulating the government for a tough stand against Japan and warning that Beijing should live up to the promise of the new air defense zone in confronting Japan. The creation of the defense zone was designed to challenge Japan directly, another Chinese analyst, Zhu Feng, said.
“Japan always has the backing of the United States and shows unbelievable arrogance to the Chinese proposal to have talks on a bilateral basis over the islands,” said Dr. Zhu, a professor of international relations at Beijing University. “Japan’s arrogance is unacceptable.”
One of the goals of creating the defense zone, Dr. Zhu said, was to force Japan to negotiate with China over the ownership of the islands, which are administered by Japan. Chinese officials say the islands are rightly China’s because they say Japan grabbed the territory during the start of its imperial expansion in the late 1800s. The Japanese say they peacefully annexed the islands, which they say were empty and unclaimed.
On social media, China’s Internet community unleashed a barrage of nationalist commentary, congratulating the government for its initial tough stand against Japan and warning that Beijing should live up to the promise of the new air defense zone in confronting the Japanese.
“If the Chinese military doesn’t do anything about aircraft that don’t obey the commands to identify themselves in the zone, it will face international ridicule,” wrote Ni Fangliu, a historian and investigative journalist with more than two million followers on his Tencent microblog.“If the Chinese military doesn’t do anything about aircraft that don’t obey the commands to identify themselves in the zone, it will face international ridicule,” wrote Ni Fangliu, a historian and investigative journalist with more than two million followers on his Tencent microblog.
The People’s Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of China’s military, said in a commentary published before the Chinese government acknowledged the B-52 flights that the zone required strong warning and defensive capabilities, otherwise its creation would be just “armchair strategy.” The People’s Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of China’s military, said in a commentary published before the Chinese government acknowledged the B-52 flights that the zone required strong warning and defensive capabilities. Otherwise, he said, its creation was just “armchair strategy.”
Asked at the Foreign Ministry briefing whether China’s decision not to respond to the flight of the B-52 bombers rendered China a “paper tiger,” the spokesman, Qin Gang, deflected the question. In Washington on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called the Japanese defense minister, Itsunori Onodera, to discuss the security situation in the East China Sea. “Secretary Hagel assured Minister Onodera that U.S. military operations will not in any way change as a result of China’s announcement,” said Carl Woog, the Pentagon’s assistant press secretary.
“The word paper tiger has its special meaning. You should look it up, about why Chairman Mao Zedong spoke of the phrase ‘paper tiger,'” he said. “Here, I would like to emphasize that the Chinese government has enough determination and capability to defend national sovereignty.” In Japan, the flight of the B-52s was welcomed, and a senior Foreign Ministry official, who declined to be named per usual diplomatic protocol, said the United States and Japan had worked closely on what to do in response to the Chinese zone.
South Korea, which has recently developed friendlier relations with China, said it could not accept the new defense zone. The coordinates announced by China overlap with South Korea’s air defense identification zone in some respects. Yoo Jeh-seung, the deputy defense minister for policy of South Korea, said Seoul would not recognize China’s declaration. According to the official, the Japanese foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, spoke with Secretary of State John Kerry on the phone Tuesday night, and Mr. Kerry described the situation as “an extremely dangerous act by China,” and said that “the U.S. supports Japan’s position.”
China, adding heft to its growing air and sea presence, dispatched its only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, on Tuesday for a training exercise in the South China Sea on its first lengthy sea voyage. In order to reach the South China Sea, the Chinese news media said, the carrier might sail close to the Okinawa Islands of Japan. The Japanese government appeared confident that China would not interfere with civilian flights. A defense ministry official, who asked not to be named, said the government had told Japanese airlines that it would guarantee their safety, though it was not taking unusual actions such as sending fighter escorts.

Austin Ramzy contributed from Taipei, Taiwan, and Chris Buckley contributed from Hong Kong.

South Korea, which has recently developed friendlier relations with China, also said it could not accept China’s new claims of control.
The coordinates announced by China overlap with South Korea’s air defense identification zone. Yoo Jeh-seung, the deputy defense minister for policy of South Korea, said Seoul would not recognize China’s declaration.
“The issue of the air defense identification zone is making the already difficult regional situations even more difficult to deal with,” South Korea’s foreign minister, Yun Byung-se, said during a defense forum in Seoul on Wednesday.
“We see competition and conflict in the region deepening,” he said. “Things can take a dramatic turn for the worse if territorial conflicts and historical issues are merged with nationalism.”

Reporting was contributed by Martin Fackler from Japan, Austin Ramzy from Taipei, Taiwan, Chris Buckley from Hong Kong and Thom Shanker from Washington.