Defense official explains ADIZ

The Chinese government announced the establishment of the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone on Nov 23. It is a necessary measure for China to protect its State sovereignty and territorial and airspace security, Geng Yansheng, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said on Tuesday.

It is conducive to maintaining flying safety in international airspace, and is in line with international laws and conventions.

The announcement of the East China Sea ADIZ has earned understanding and recognition from an increasing number of countries and peoples, but misunderstandings or even distortions also exist, Geng said.

He explained that some people take the ADIZ to be a territorial airspace by falsely saying that China violates other countries' interests; some equate the ADIZ with a no-fly zone, accusing China of severely undermining the freedom of overflight.

Both statements are incorrect. An ADIZ is essentially different from territorial airspace or no-fly zones.

It is not a country's territorial airspace, but an international airspace demarcated outside the territorial airspace for the purpose of identification and early warning; it is not a no-fly zone, and will not affect the freedom of overflight, based on international laws, of other countries' aircraft.

According to international practice, a country can identify and verify aircraft entering its ADIZ. China's ADIZ was established to set aside enough time for early warning to defend the country's airspace, with defense acting as the key point.

The zone is not aimed at any specific country or target, nor does it constitute a threat to any country or region.

Some people doubt China's monitoring capabilities in the East China Sea ADIZ.

The Chinese military's determination and volition to safeguard the security of national territory and territorial airspace are unwavering, and the military is fully capable of exercising effective control over the East China Sea ADIZ.

Generally, supervision and control are exercised through reported flight plans and radar response and identification, among other means. Military planes can also take flight if necessary to identify entering targets, Geng said.

Factor-based measures

Measures to be taken are based on factors such as an entering aircraft's attributes - military or civilian, the extent of threat, or distance.

Fighter planes are unnecessary when an entering aircraft is found to pose no threat, but necessary surveillance is needed; when the entering threat is ascertained to reach a certain extent, military aircraft will be mobilized at an appropriate time to dispose of the situation.

It is well known that civil flights pose no threat in most circumstances.

China always respects other countries' freedom of overflight according to international laws, so that international flights that fly normally within the rules in the East China Sea ADIZ will not be affected, as such is the fact.

Some people say that China's requirement of reporting flight plans is unusual, and very few countries have pressured their civil aviation companies and demanded that they should not report flight plans to China.

There is no unified international rule as to how to ask other countries to report flight plans to the ADIZ demarcators. Many countries require aircraft flying over their air defense identification zones to report flight plans beforehand. China is not special in doing so.

Actually, since the announcement of the East China Sea ADIZ, a majority of civil aviation companies with their air routes traversing the area have reported flight plans to China's civil aviation department, including some Japanese airlines.

China has also noticed that some countries' military planes took China's announcement of the East China Sea ADIZ seriously.

China's requirement of reporting flight plans and relevant information is conducive to ensuring flight safety and avoiding misunderstandings and misjudgments, considering heavy air traffic in airspace over the East China Sea.

A very few countries' insistence on not reporting flight plans is not beneficial, nor responsible.

Status quo unchanged

Geng said China has noticed that a very few countries have said that China's setting up of the East China Sea ADIZ has unilaterally altered the East China Sea's status quo, and escalated regional tension.

The fact is that they established an ADIZ as early as 1969 and later expanded its scope many times to only 130 km toward our coastline from its west end, which covers most of the airspace of the East China Sea, so they are not qualified at all to make irresponsible remarks on China's lawful and rational act.

Since September 2012, Japan has been making trouble over territorial disputes, staging a farce by announcing that it would "purchase" the Diaoyu Islands, frequently sending vessels and planes to disturb Chinese ships and planes in normal exercises or training, openly making provocative remarks such as shooting down Chinese drones, playing up the so-called China threat, escalating regional tension, creating excuses for revising its current constitution and expanding its military, trying to deny the result of World War II, and refusing to implement the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation.

Japan's actions have seriously harmed China's legitimate rights and security interests, and undermined the peace and stability in East Asia. China has to take necessary measures.

A very few countries must earnestly reflect on their actions and correct their wrong remarks and wrongdoings. Other parties concerned should also mind their words and actions, and should not do things to undermine regional stability and bilateral relations.

Other parties should not be incited, or send wrong signals to make a very few countries go further on the wrong track, which will follow the same old disastrous road and undermine regional and world peace.

(China Daily 12/04/2013 page11)