Assertions in the air

US has failed to challenge China's air defence zone

The People's Republic of China, which has long insisted on its "peaceful rise" in international affairs, has nevertheless an equally long history of worrying its neighbours through unilateralism. Its latest move is one that creates endless and sustained opportunities for tensions with countries including Japan and Taiwan, and also with the United States. On November 23, China declared that it was extending the "air defence zone" (ADZ) that hugs most countries' coastlines by a vast amount over the East China Sea. The purported reason for this extension? Its claim to uninhabited islands it disputes with Japan, called the Senkakus by Japan and Diaoyu by China. China's declaration that its ADZ would now cover a huge stretch of ocean that it did not earlier means that airplanes, whether civilian or military, passing through the area are required to report their presence to Chinese authorities, file a flight plan, or face ominous-sounding "defensive emergency measures". Besides Japan, Taiwan and South Korea also have claims over part of the area that China now claims as its exclusive ADZ.

Japan, Taiwan and the United States had challenged the ADZ soon after its declaration by China. The US sent two B-52 bombers through the airspace. Japan sent 10 airplanes - including early-warning aircraft, fighters and spy planes - through the airspace. Taiwan and South Korea have also sent planes through the area. The Chinese government did say that many of those flights led to it scrambling its own fighter jets, indicating the degree to which tensions could easily be heightened.

However, any thought that there would be a unity of firmness in response to China's provocations dissolved when news emerged that the US federal authorities had advised its airlines flying through the ADZ to report their presence to the Chinese. The Japanese have refused to do so. This cannot but be seen as weakness on the part of the US. On Tuesday, US Vice President Joe Biden began a six-week visit to Tokyo. He will have considerable damage control to do. It is difficult to see why Asian capitals should be able to trust that an overly cautious and West Asia-obsessed US administration will be there to provide support, when the chips are down with China. The two original B-52 flights have not been followed by similarly visible flights by other military aircraft, though the US armed forces have insisted they have not changed their behaviour in response to Chinese assertion.

To an extent, the leaders of the People's Republic have already achieved the purpose that underlay their extension of China's ADZ. The administration of Barack Obama has once again been shown up as infirm of purpose, and its much-publicised "pivot" to Asia as little more than words. For more than 60 years - the length of time that Japan has had an ADZ across the East Sea unchallenged by China - the US' security umbrella has been a source of strength in that region. For South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, the holes in that umbrella have widened. Its very presence is beginning to be questioned, given the pusillanimity in Washington. It is crucially important for India to work towards a stable security architecture in South, Southeast and East Asia, and to end its equivocation on whether US presence in the region is one such stabilising factor.