Opinion | China and US must work together to ease zone tensions

President Xi Jinping told the visiting former US president Bill Clinton earlier last month that the relationship between the two countries had become a "skyscraper". This is the first time a top mainland leader has used this word to define the complex and evolving Sino-US ties, signalling an optimistic view of the height and strength of the relationship.

Merely five days later, however, and the foundations of the skyscraper have started to shake. Or at least it seems like it. On November 23, the Ministry of Defence announced the establishment of a new "air defence identification zone", known by its initials ADIZ, over a large area of the East China Sea, covering the islands disputed with Japan, known as the Diaoyu in China and the Senkaku in Japan. The decision appears to have triggered a major geopolitical crisis, involving the US, China, Japan, the world's first, second, and third largest economies, along with other countries and regions including South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia.

Beijing demanded all aircraft flying through the zone first register with the mainland authorities or face the consequences, but Washington, Tokyo and even Seoul have defied Beijing by flying military patrols through the zone without prior notice over the past week. In response, Beijing scrambled fighter jets and early warning planes to "identify and monitor" the flights.

Initial reactions have contained a sniff of panic as many people expressed concerns about the safety of commercial airlines passing through the zone and others were worried that any unintended confrontation could lead to a similar incident to April 2001, when a mid-air collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a US spy plane off the mainland coast led to a major setback in Sino-US ties.

While these worries are legitimate, the chances of any military confrontation, intended or unintended, are very low so long as Washington and Beijing are taking steps to strengthen the foundation of the skyscraper.

Beijing's announcement last week may have come out of the blue, but it was the result of long and careful thought, reflecting Xi's new and more assertive diplomatic initiatives as China tries to expand its maritime power and its influence in the region to counter the US's policy of aligning with Asia and Japan's increasingly aggressive stance over the sovereignty of the islands.