Japan, U.S. at Odds Over China's Air Zone - WSJ.com
A naval soldier scanned the sea aboard the 'Liaoning,' China's first aircraft carrier, in an undated photograph. Xinhua/Reuters
Japanese officials on Sunday played down publicly—but complained privately—that the U.S. isn't following Tokyo in rebuffing Beijing's demands for foreign airlines to file flight plans when navigating through China's new air-defense zone.
The developments came as Japan openly questioned the Chinese military's ability to police the zone.
Beijing said on Friday that it had dispatched fighter jets to monitor the area after the U.S. and Japan said their jets had entered in defiance of China's demands for notification.
"Based on our evaluations, there was no Chinese fighter jet that came into close proximity of our planes. We did not experience anything unusual," Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said in an interview with national broadcaster NHK.
Calls to China's foreign and defense ministries went unanswered early Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration has advised U.S. commercial airlines to abide by China's air-defense zone to avoid any possible miscommunications, Obama administration officials said. The State Department on Friday said it "generally expects" carriers to operate consistent with notices such as the one China put out about the establishment of the air-defense identification zone.
The confusion surrounding the aviation rules highlighted the dilemma the Chinese zone posed for the Obama administration. While sending U.S. military aircraft to flout Beijing's rules, the administration also took steps designed to ensure the safety of commercial American flights in the region. And although U.S. officials acted swiftly to challenge the Chinese militarily on behalf of its ally Japan, Washington felt it necessary to stop short of Tokyo's aggressive response in the civil-aviation realm.
White House officials declined to discuss the issue further on Sunday, referring inquires to the FAA and citing the State Department's earlier guidance. The State Department didn't respond to requests to comment, and an FAA spokeswoman didn't have any immediate comment.
"I was taken aback when I heard this," Yukio Okamoto, a former senior Foreign Ministry official, said in an interview on Sunday with NHK. "I can't think of any case like this in the past where the U.S. took a step that hurt Japan's interests over an issue related directly to Japan's national security in a way visible to the whole world."
While visiting a regional city on Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, "We have confirmed through diplomatic channels that the U.S. government didn't request commercial carriers to submit flight plans."
Speaking privately, Japanese officials said Washington has yet to coordinate views among government branches and come up with a unified stance that can be conveyed to Tokyo properly.
U.S. carriers, caught between diplomatic pressures and safety considerations, are seeking a way to avoid further ratcheting up tensions, said a person familiar with the U.S. position. With the apparent blessing of the U.S., this person said, they are filing flight plans with both Japan and China. At the same time, affected routes are being modified to avoid disputed airspace as much as practicable.
Earlier confusion over the official U.S. stance also may reflect different views among federal agencies, said another person tracking the issue, who said the FAA historically expects American carriers to comply with local flight-plan requirements.
The air-defense zone issue primarily affects two U.S. airlines, United Continental Holdings Inc. UAL -0.46% and Delta Air Lines Inc., DAL -1.23% which have some flights within the region to and from locations outside China that previously wouldn't have been required to file flight plans with China.
United, the largest U.S airline, on Sunday said it is "fully complying" with the FAA's requirements. Delta's routes from Tokyo to Taipei and Tokyo to Hong Kong traverse the new zone, so Delta is filing flight plans with China on those routes.
The latest moves surfaced on the eve of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the region. He is set to meet with Japanese officials before heading to China and South Korea.
The U.S. military has backed Japan in the standoff against China, after Beijing unilaterally declared on Nov. 23 that it had established the new zone over East China Sea islands claimed by both countries.
At the heart of the tensions are a group of small uninhabited islands called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. While the two countries have tangled openly over the territory for more than a year, global concern increased over the past week after China said it would begin policing the air zone around the islands.
Satoshi Morimoto, a former defense minister who teaches security at Takushoku University, said Mr. Onodera's remarks suggest China wasn't able to "conduct a scramble against American planes even as they flew through its new zone." Japan must determine whether China has the capability to monitor the whole expanse of the ADIZ using radar located on the mainland and whether its pilots have the experience and expertise to go after foreign planes, Mr. Morimoto said on the NHK program.
As officials fear the rising risks of unintended collisions, and with bilateral diplomatic channels with China barely functioning, Japan has quickly filed a complaint about the new air zone to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency that watches civil aviation.
Commercial aviation will be among the pressing security-related issues Japanese officials are hoping to discuss with Mr. Biden during his stay in Tokyo, Japanese officials said.
At his meeting with the vice president scheduled for Tuesday, Mr. Abe will press the U.S. to stand firm against China's unilateral attempt to establish its claim over the disputed islands, Japanese officials said. Together, the two allies are also likely to push Beijing to join in efforts to establish an emergency mechanism to avoid unintended clashes or deal with them should they occur.
Mr. Biden will likely urge Japanese officials to mend their tattered ties with South Korea, which, like Japan, has also protested China's latest air-defense zone.
"One of the main goals of Mr. Biden's visit was to make progress on the TPP," said Tomohiko Taniguchi, councilor at Cabinet Secretariat at the Prime Minister's office, referring to negotiations to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement before the end of December, Washington's stated goal. "That now appears to be taking a back seat."
—Susan Carey, Julian E. Barnes and Jeremy Page contributed to this article.
Write to Yuka Hayashi at [email protected] and Andy Pasztor at [email protected]
A naval soldier scanned the sea aboard the 'Liaoning,' China's first aircraft carrier, in an undated photograph. Xinhua/Reuters
Japanese officials on Sunday played down publicly—but complained privately—that the U.S. isn't following Tokyo in rebuffing Beijing's demands for foreign airlines to file flight plans when navigating through China's new air-defense zone.
The developments came as Japan openly questioned the Chinese military's ability to police the zone.
Beijing said on Friday that it had dispatched fighter jets to monitor the area after the U.S. and Japan said their jets had entered in defiance of China's demands for notification.
"Based on our evaluations, there was no Chinese fighter jet that came into close proximity of our planes. We did not experience anything unusual," Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said in an interview with national broadcaster NHK.
Calls to China's foreign and defense ministries went unanswered early Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration has advised U.S. commercial airlines to abide by China's air-defense zone to avoid any possible miscommunications, Obama administration officials said. The State Department on Friday said it "generally expects" carriers to operate consistent with notices such as the one China put out about the establishment of the air-defense identification zone.
The confusion surrounding the aviation rules highlighted the dilemma the Chinese zone posed for the Obama administration. While sending U.S. military aircraft to flout Beijing's rules, the administration also took steps designed to ensure the safety of commercial American flights in the region. And although U.S. officials acted swiftly to challenge the Chinese militarily on behalf of its ally Japan, Washington felt it necessary to stop short of Tokyo's aggressive response in the civil-aviation realm.
White House officials declined to discuss the issue further on Sunday, referring inquires to the FAA and citing the State Department's earlier guidance. The State Department didn't respond to requests to comment, and an FAA spokeswoman didn't have any immediate comment.
"I was taken aback when I heard this," Yukio Okamoto, a former senior Foreign Ministry official, said in an interview on Sunday with NHK. "I can't think of any case like this in the past where the U.S. took a step that hurt Japan's interests over an issue related directly to Japan's national security in a way visible to the whole world."
While visiting a regional city on Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, "We have confirmed through diplomatic channels that the U.S. government didn't request commercial carriers to submit flight plans."
Speaking privately, Japanese officials said Washington has yet to coordinate views among government branches and come up with a unified stance that can be conveyed to Tokyo properly.
U.S. carriers, caught between diplomatic pressures and safety considerations, are seeking a way to avoid further ratcheting up tensions, said a person familiar with the U.S. position. With the apparent blessing of the U.S., this person said, they are filing flight plans with both Japan and China. At the same time, affected routes are being modified to avoid disputed airspace as much as practicable.
Earlier confusion over the official U.S. stance also may reflect different views among federal agencies, said another person tracking the issue, who said the FAA historically expects American carriers to comply with local flight-plan requirements.
The air-defense zone issue primarily affects two U.S. airlines, United Continental Holdings Inc. UAL -0.46% and Delta Air Lines Inc., DAL -1.23% which have some flights within the region to and from locations outside China that previously wouldn't have been required to file flight plans with China.
United, the largest U.S airline, on Sunday said it is "fully complying" with the FAA's requirements. Delta's routes from Tokyo to Taipei and Tokyo to Hong Kong traverse the new zone, so Delta is filing flight plans with China on those routes.
The latest moves surfaced on the eve of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the region. He is set to meet with Japanese officials before heading to China and South Korea.
The U.S. military has backed Japan in the standoff against China, after Beijing unilaterally declared on Nov. 23 that it had established the new zone over East China Sea islands claimed by both countries.
At the heart of the tensions are a group of small uninhabited islands called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. While the two countries have tangled openly over the territory for more than a year, global concern increased over the past week after China said it would begin policing the air zone around the islands.
Satoshi Morimoto, a former defense minister who teaches security at Takushoku University, said Mr. Onodera's remarks suggest China wasn't able to "conduct a scramble against American planes even as they flew through its new zone." Japan must determine whether China has the capability to monitor the whole expanse of the ADIZ using radar located on the mainland and whether its pilots have the experience and expertise to go after foreign planes, Mr. Morimoto said on the NHK program.
As officials fear the rising risks of unintended collisions, and with bilateral diplomatic channels with China barely functioning, Japan has quickly filed a complaint about the new air zone to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency that watches civil aviation.
Commercial aviation will be among the pressing security-related issues Japanese officials are hoping to discuss with Mr. Biden during his stay in Tokyo, Japanese officials said.
At his meeting with the vice president scheduled for Tuesday, Mr. Abe will press the U.S. to stand firm against China's unilateral attempt to establish its claim over the disputed islands, Japanese officials said. Together, the two allies are also likely to push Beijing to join in efforts to establish an emergency mechanism to avoid unintended clashes or deal with them should they occur.
Mr. Biden will likely urge Japanese officials to mend their tattered ties with South Korea, which, like Japan, has also protested China's latest air-defense zone.
"One of the main goals of Mr. Biden's visit was to make progress on the TPP," said Tomohiko Taniguchi, councilor at Cabinet Secretariat at the Prime Minister's office, referring to negotiations to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement before the end of December, Washington's stated goal. "That now appears to be taking a back seat."
—Susan Carey, Julian E. Barnes and Jeremy Page contributed to this article.
Write to Yuka Hayashi at [email protected] and Andy Pasztor at [email protected]
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