China sent fighters and an airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft into its newly declared Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea on 28 November.
The patrols were the latest move in a series of military moves in Northeast Asia following China's 23 November declaration of the ADIZ. Japan, South Korea and the United States all responded to the ADIZ announcement by sending military aircraft on patrols over the East China Sea.
A People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) KJ-2000 AEW&C aircraft from the 76th EW (electronic warfare) Regiment, 26th Specialized Division, flew from Wuxi, Jiangsu province, while some PLAAF Sukhoi Su-30 and PLA Navy Air Force Su-27-derived J-11 fighter aircraft also took part in "routine air patrols ... aiming to strengthen monitoring on air targets in the zone and fulfil the air force's historic mission," PLAAF spokesman Colonel Shen Jinke said in a statement posted on the Chinese Ministry of National Defense website.
In its ADIZ announcement China said that all non-Chinese military aircraft within the area that appeared to be approaching Chinese airspace would have to identify themselves and be monitored. Beijing added that Chinese military aircraft would adopt "defensive emergency measures to respond to aircraft that do not co-operate in the identification or refuse to follow the instructions". The statement also said that it would not apply to civilian aircraft on commercial flights.
Japan, South Korea and the United States all said they would ignore the ADIZ. US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said it would "not in any way change how the United States conducts military operations in the region", while in Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters: "We are not going to change this [our patrols] out of consideration to China."
The ADIZ encompasses the Senkaku/Daioyu islands and at its southernmost point is only 30 km (16 n miles) from the Japanese island of Yonaguni. It overlaps with Japan's own unilaterally imposed ADIZ and also covers Ieodo, a submerged rock that is the source of a territorial dispute between China and South Korea.
The United States followed up Hagel's words by sending two unarmed Boeing B-52 bombers on what it called a "scheduled training mission" from Guam into the East China Sea, where they flew along the southeastern edge of the ADIZ before returning home. Japan announced on 27 November that it had conducted patrols using aircraft from the Japan Self-Defense Forces and Japan Coast Guard in the East China Sea in defiance of the ADIZ, while South Korea announced similar patrols with Republic of Korea Navy aircraft. No Chinese aircraft intercepted these flights.
The Chinese patrol is its second since the ADIZ was announced. On 23 November a Tupolev Tu-154 belonging to the PLA Air Force and a PLA Navy Air Force Shaanxi Y-8 special missions aircraft flew along the part of the edge of China's new ADIZ. Both were tracked - and photographed - by Japan Air Self-Defence Force aircraft.
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