China's sends early warning fighter jets into its 'disputed' air defence zone

China has said it has sent several fighter planes and an early warning aircraft on normal air patrols into its newly declared maritime air defence zone in the East China Sea.

However, there were no reports on whether they had encountered foreign aircraft, News.com.au reports.

An air force spokesman said that sending flights to its air defence zone was a defensive measure to protect the country's airspace and was in line with international common practices.

The United States, Japan and South Korea, meanwhile, said their aircrafts had not encountered any Chinese response since Beijing announced the creation of the zone last week.

The move came after these nations defied Chinese air defence rules of identifying aircrafts and giving flight plans to Beijing in advance as demanded by the authorities on last Saturday.

Meanwhile, analysts said Beijing's motive is not to trigger an aerial confrontation, but is a more long-term strategy to solidify claims to disputed territory by simply marking the area as its own.