Beijing's air defence zone aimed at making Tokyo negotiate, analysts say
Beijing is just trying to force Tokyo back to negotiating table to settle the Diaoyu dispute, analysts say, with military clashes unlikely
China hopes to force Japan back to the negotiating table over disputed islands in the East China Sea by establishing an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) there, analysts say.
Beijing's declaration of the zone last week attracted criticism - and warplanes - from Japan and its ally the United States, and drew the ire of South Korea and Taiwan, whose own air defence zones partly overlap Beijing's.
But analysts said Beijing's primary goal remained pressing Tokyo to forsake its stance over the Diaoyu Islands, which Japan calls the Senkakus.
"The biggest concern is the overlapping of Chinese and Japanese air zones, including the airspace above the disputed Diaoyu Islands … that implies the risk of a clash between both sides' fighter jets increasing," said Professor Liu Jiangyong , an expert on Sino-Japanese relations at Tsinghua University.
"To reduce such risk, it has became more pressing for both sides to sit down and negotiate the dispute over the Diaoyus," Liu said. "That has been all along what China asked for: Japan has to acknowledge there is a sovereignty dispute."
Xu Guangyu , a retired People's Liberation Army general, agreed.
"The eventual purpose is to force Japan to sit down with China, to avoid miscalculation and escalation," Xu said.