Chinese think tank rejects reports of planned South China Sea air defence identification zone

Such a suggestion is aimed at driving a wedge between China, Japan, South Korea and members of Asean, an article published by the think tank said

It followed reports in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the West that a zone was set to be rolled out and comes amid escalating US-China tensions

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An F/A-18E Super Hornet lands on the flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan as the USS Nimitz steams past in the South China Sea on July 6. Photo: US Navy via AP

Published: 3:36pm, 10 Jul 2020Updated: 10:22pm, 11 Jul 2020

A Chinese think tank has shot down suggestions that Beijing is looking to set up an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea that would see it take total control of a section of airspace over the disputed waterway and further escalate tensions with Washington.

Such a suggestion was aimed at driving a wedge between China and its neighbours in the region “so as to impede cooperation”, said the article published by Peking University’s South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI).

The article – co-authored by Cao Qun, a researcher with the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s China Institute of International Studies, and Bao Yinan, an associate professor at the East China University of Political Science and Law’s School of International Law – said there was “no evidence at all that the Chinese government intends to announce a South China Sea ADIZ any time soon”.

It pointed to recent reports in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the West – including a South China Morning Post article published on May 31 – as evidence of growing media “clamour” about a potential ADIZ, culminating in incoming US Air Force chief General Charles Q. Brown Jnr’s comments on June 24 that such a move would go against “the rules-based international order” and be contrary to the concept of a “free and open Indo-Pacific”.

A handout photo made available by the US Navy shows aircraft flying in formation over the Nimitz Carrier Strike Force in the South China Sea on July 6. Photo: EPA / Handout

The motive behind such fabricated “threatening theories”, according to Cao and Bao, is “to cause diplomatic tensions and accidental clashes between China”, Japan, South Korea and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.