WASHINGTON — Two long-range American bombers have conducted what Pentagon
officials described Tuesday as a routine training mission through international
air space recently claimed by China as its “air defense identification zone.”
The Chinese government said Saturday that it has the
right to identify, monitor and possibly take military action against aircraft
that enter the area, which includes sea and islands also claimed by Japan. The
claim threatens to escalate an already tense dispute over some of the maritime
territory. American officials said the pair of B-52s carried out a mission
that had been planned long in advance of the Chinese announcement this past
weekend, and that the United States military would continue to assert its right
to fly through what it regards as international air space. Pentagon officials
said the two bombers made a round-trip flight from Guam, passing through a zone
that covers sea and islands that are the subject of a sovereignty dispute
between Japan and China. Officials said there had been no Chinese response to
the bomber run. Within hours of the Chinese announcement this weekend that it
had declared what Beijing termed an “East China Sea Air Defense Identification
Zone,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel issued a statement expressing deep concern
over the action. “We view this development as a destabilizing attempt to alter
the status quo in the region,” Mr. Hagel said. “This unilateral action increases
the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations.” Mr. Hagel noted that “this
announcement by the People’s Republic of China will not in any way change how
the United States conducts military operations in the region.” Pentagon
officials said the training sortie by the two B-52s could be seen as
underscoring that commitment to preserving traditional rules of international
air space. Mr. Hagel’s statement said the United States had conveyed “concerns
to China through diplomatic and military channels, and we are in close
consultation with our allies and partners in the region, including Japan.” His
statement concluded by noting the United States is “steadfast in our commitments
to our allies and partners. The United States reaffirms its longstanding policy
that Article V of the U.S.-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the Senkaku
Islands.” The move by China appeared to be another step in its efforts to
intensify pressure on Japan over the Japanese-controlled islands in the East
China Sea that are at the heart of the dispute. The declaration, from a
Ministry of National Defense spokesman, Col. Yang Yujun, accompanied the
ministry’s release of a map, geographic coordinates and rules in Chinese and
English that said “China’s armed forces will take defensive emergency measures
to respond to aircraft that do not cooperate in identification or refuse to
follow orders.” “The objective is to defend national sovereignty and
territorial and air security, as well as to maintain orderly aviation,” Colonel
Yang said in comments issued on the ministry’s website.
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