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Nov. 28. (provided by the US Navy)

By Jung E-gil, senior staff writer and Seong Yeon-cheol, Beijing correspondent

Big changes are taking place in the skies and seas of Northeast Asia.

In connection with China’s announcement on Nov. 23 about its air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the skies above Northeast Asia, the US instructed its civilian airlines to follow the protocol outlined by China. After one week of heightened tensions following China’s measures, the US appears to be seeking compromise by partially accepting China’s announcement.

This represents the first time that China has officially expanded its claims over space in the skies and seas of Northeast Asia since the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949. The next question is how Japan and South Korea, which have protested the measures furiously, will respond.

In a statement released on Nov. 29, the US State Department said, “The U.S. government generally expects that U.S. carriers operating internationally will operate consistent with NOTAMs [Notices to Airmen] issued by foreign countries.” The statement instructs US civilian airlines to abide by the associated protocol in China’s ADIZ.

But the statement also emphasized that “our expectation of operations by U.S. carriers consistent with NOTAMs does not indicate U.S. government acceptance of China’s requirements for operating in the newly declared ADIZ.”

Explaining that they had been discussing the issue with civilian carriers since Nov. 27, US government officials said that they had decided to make the instructions based on existing regulations in international aviation and not because of political considerations. These officials said that the instructions only apply to civilian carriers and not to military aircraft.

Pentagon spokesperson Steve Warren said on Nov. 29, “These flights are consistent with long standing and well known U.S. freedom of navigation policies. I can confirm that the U.S. has and will continue to operate in the area as normal.”

While US government officials are making clear that the US rejects China’s unilateral declaration of an ADIZ in the East China Sea, the New York Times argued that the guidelines to civilian airlines can be interpreted as a concession in the battle of wills with China in the region.

With the US, which supervises the international civilian aviation order, instructing its civilian aircraft to abide by China’s ADIZ, it seems likely that the zone will effectively function on an international level. Since China’s declaration, Singapore Airlines has been abiding by China’s demands, while American carriers Delta and American Airlines said that they have been submitting their flight plans to China.

While Japanese airlines were also sending their flight plans to China after its announcement, they reportedly stopped doing this on Nov. 26 at the request of the Japanese government.

One week after the announcement, China appears to be enjoying partial success. China has basically some partial international recognition of its control of the air near the Senkaku Islands (called the Diaoyu Islands in China). The islands are the subject of a territorial dispute between China and Japan.

This can be seen as an early phase in gaining international recognition for the first expansion of its territory since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, as well as a response to the US’s unofficial strategy of containing China.

In its analysis of China’s declaration of the ADIZ, Hong Kong paper Asia Weekly suggested that China is interested in securing a sea route through the first island chain (Japan, Okinawa, and Taiwan) with which the US seeks to contain China. The paper noted that China must be able to navigate through the Miyako Strait, between the islands of Miyako and Okinawa, without the interference of Japan if it is to make it past this line of islands.

Citing one of its sources, the paper said that China has been working on this plan for a long time and that Chinese President Xi Jinping finally decided on this course of action in August.

The US action is seen as a bid to defuse the confrontation with China in the territorial dispute in the region, which was exacerbated when Japan nationalized the Senkaku Islands in 2012. It appears that the US wanted to offer a concession to China before US Vice President Joe Biden visits the country this week.

“On this matter, the US is placing more importance on improving its relationship with China than on its alliance with Japan,” said Zhou Yongsheng, a Chinese expert on the Japan issue, in the Dec. 1 issue of Chinese newspaper Ming Pao. “Japan will find itself in a very awkward position,” Zhou said.

In a meeting with reporters on Nov. 30, Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Akihiro Ota struggled to conceal his dismay, saying that the Japanese government is confirming the intentions of the US government.

“We have confirmed through diplomatic channels that the US government did not request commercial carriers to submit flight plans,” said Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. “The response we received [on Nov. 30] is that the US is not making this request to its civilian airlines,” said Japanese defense minister Itsunori Onodera on Dec. 1

Along with its plans to expand its own ADIZ in response to China, South Korea made a definite announcement that it would participate in the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact (TPP), which China has criticized as an attempt to contain it economically. South Korea was put in an embarrassing position when the US responded that South Korea could take part in the TPP negotiations, which are viewed as an attempt to counter the rise of China, only after the conclusion of negotiations between the current twelve participating countries.

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