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

South China Sea

Maria Siow

Published: 3:36pm, 10 Jul 2020

Why you can trust SCMP

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).

Beijing plans extensive South China Sea air defence identification zone: PLA source

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.

Their article, published on Monday, followed overlapping military exercises in the region over the weekend by the US and China, which prompted Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian to criticise Washington’s “ulterior motives” that he said undermined stability in the area.

Beijing ‘is ready to counter US’ as both navies hold drills in South China Sea

“The US deliberately dispatched massive forces to conduct large-scale military exercises in the relevant waters of the South China Sea to flex its military muscle,” Zhao said at a briefing.

China already has an ADIZ in the East China Sea, which was set up in November 2013. Since then, a similar zone for the South China Sea has long rumoured to be in the pipeline, with a Chinese military insider tell the Post in May that it would cover the entirety of the Spratly, Paracel, and Pratas Islands and be announced at the appropriate time – an assertion reportedly confirmed by Taiwan’s Defence Ministry that same month.

China wants to implement an ADIZ as part of its larger ambition to exert control over the South China Sea

Bonnie Glaser, Centre for Strategic and International Studies

Such zones are not uncommon and many countries have set them up to provide an early warning system of incursions by possibly hostile aircraft. They are still considered international airspace, but if an aircraft enters one without warning it will usually be intercepted so that it can be identified and a decision made on whether it poses a threat.

While insisting that recent reports on a South China Sea ADIZ were misguided, the SCSPI article did assert that “China has the right to set up an ADIZ in the South China Sea and is not obliged to report to anyone about the time and specifics of such [a] plan”.

According to Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, “China wants to implement an ADIZ as part of its larger ambition to exert control over the South China Sea”. She noted that a number of countries in the region had expressed concern about such a zone – especially given the “worrisome” rules for Beijing’s existing ADIZ in the East China Sea that she said “go beyond what most other countries require”.

“For example, [it] requires all aircraft flying in the ADIZ – whether [or not] they intend to enter into China’s territorial airspace, to comply with the identification requirements. The US only requires aircraft intending to enter its territorial airspace to comply with its rules,” she said.

“Even more alarming is China’s threat that non-compliant aircraft may provoke China’s military to carry out ‘defensive emergency measures’. If this is applied to the South China Sea, it will certainly increase tensions.”

A Chinese fighter pilot pictured intercepting a foreign aircraft after it was spotted inside China’s ADIZ over the East China Sea in January last year. Photo: Weibo

In their article, Cao and Bao argue that “as a matter of fact, the US has implemented rules that are much stricter than China’s” – citing the threat of “use of force” if an aircraft fails to adequately identify itself – and also point out that the area a country’s ADIZ covers “has no direct relation its claims regarding territorial sovereignty or maritime boundary”.

While this may be true in some cases, China’s existing ADIZ in the East China Sea “follows rather remarkably Beijing’s claims over the continental shelf as the principle for the boundary delimitation”, said East Asian security expert Alessio Patalano, of King’s College London’s Department of War Studies.

“As a result, unless China clarifies the principles it adopted for its ADIZ in the East China Sea, there is no reason not to review the shape of an ADIZ in the South China Sea in relation to Beijing’s current claims,” he said, adding that given the artificial military outposts it has constructed in the region, China already has all it needs to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance without the need for an ADIZ, which he described as a “tool of political choice”.

03:23

The South China Sea dispute explained

Not tying a potential South China Sea ADIZ to its territorial claims would give Beijing much greater flexibility over which areas the zone covers and how large it could be, according to Collin Koh Swee Lean, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies’ Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore.

“It all then boils down to Beijing’s political intent and will, and perhaps most important of all, its capability to operate this zone,” he said. If the rumoured zone does cover “more than what China would claim”, however, this “could mean ever more assertive posture” on the South China Sea issue by Beijing, he said.

China has made a number of moves in recent months which have been seen as it unilaterally asserting jurisdiction over the South China Sea.

In April, it announced two new administrative districts to govern the Paracel and Spratly Islands and named 80 new tiny geographical features in waters claimed by Vietnam. Around the same time Beijing dispatched a survey ship into Malaysian waters, which was interpreted by some as an intimidation tactic to prevent resource exploration by the Southeast Asian nation.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: maritime ‘air defence zone’ claim dismissed o evidence’ China mulling air defence zone in the region

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