In China, there is a palpable sense of historic mission.
or internal political objectives,” he said. “So far, China’s move has backfired on it, but it might have longer term. Narushige Michishita, a security expert at Tokyo’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, described the zone as a “bad step” for both Japan and China.
“They don’t feel safe without vast space between themselves and their enemies,” the person said. Speaking privately, one government source said that while it could damage Japan’s “effective control” of disputed islands in the short-term, in the longer term it represented a push by Beijing to create a broad defensive zone across the East and South China Seas. In Tokyo, too, there is a sense that China is playing a long-term game - even if Beijing struggles to enforce a move some analysts described as poorly thought out. a region that is already fraught,” one U.S. “It causes friction and uncertainty, it constitutes a unilateral challenge to the status quo in. And China’s declaration it could take action against unidentified aircraft that ignored its warnings has sparked fears of an increased risk of accidents and miscalculations. is obliged to defend under its treaty with Japan - represents a dangerous strategic shift, U.S. The fact China’s zone overlaps Japan’s - including contested islands that the U.S.
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This is part of their trial and error process to get the right balance,” said former senior Japanese diplomat Hitoshi Tanaka. “What (President) Xi Jinping is trying to do is create a balance between soft and hard, conservatives and liberals. President Barack Obama pulled out of a long-planned trip. They are also puzzled how the move fits with Beijing’s vaunted “soft power” diplomacy - on display recently as China’s leaders toured South East Asia after U.S. Some suggest the fact that Chinese planes have yet to attempt an interception in the air this week, despite the swift flouting of its demands, shows that Beijing’s bluff has been called. For example, China’s rotating presence of ships in seas around Japan’s Senkaku islands, which China claims and calls the Diaoyu, have continued without sparking a direct military response from Washington. Japan and South Korea, another treaty ally of the U.S., also sent military aircraft through the zone this week without informing China, lending muscle to earlier diplomatic protests.įor all the apparent boldness of China’s move, some regional analysts believe Beijing has over-reached, in comparison to earlier campaigns of assertion. surveillance flights near China’s coast - such as one that sparked a fatal collision over Hainan Island in 2001 - “will never be allowed to happen again.” to have more profound strategic thinking about China’s rise.”Ī Chinese analyst with ties to the military warned Tokyo and Washington against mistaking Beijing as a “paper tiger”, adding that U.S. and its allies recognize that will be vital to the future of the region,” he said. Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University who advises Beijing’s State Council, said Washington had recognized China as a great trade and diplomatic power, and should now acknowledge China needs its own “strategic space”. Vice President Joe Biden travels to Japan, China and South Korea early next week.
The regional tensions will loom large when U.S. territory to the Chinese coast.Ĭhina’s unilateral creation of the zone - accompanied by warnings that it would take “defensive emergency measures” against aircraft that didn’t identify themselves - has raised the stakes in a territorial dispute with Japan over tiny, uninhabited islands in the area.Įven as some suggest Beijing’s move is already backfiring, experts in China say it is a part of a long-term effort, carrying broader historic significance for the United States as the traditional provider of Japanese security. counterparts they are uncomfortable with America’s presence in the western Pacific - and Beijing is now confronting strategic assumptions that have governed the region since World War Two.Ĭhina’s recent maritime muscle-flexing in disputes over the Paracel islands and Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and over Japanese-administered islands in the East China Sea has stirred concern and extensive backroom diplomacy in Washington.īut it took the events of the last week to spark an immediate and symbolic response from the United States - the unannounced appearance in the zone of two unarmed B-52 bombers from the fortified island of Guam, the closest U.S. REUTERS/Kyodoįor years, Chinese naval officers have told their U.S. Navy FA-18 Hornets park on the flight deck of the USS George Washington during the Annual Exercise 2013, at sea November 28, 2013.
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