U.S. airlines complying with China's new airspace demands

Deirdre Shesgreen | Gannett Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — U.S. airline officials say they are complying with new State Department guidance urging carriers to alert China before any flights pass through that country's new self-declared air-defense zone.

Airline officials said Saturday that compliance would not disrupt travel to Asia, since they already communicate with any government when crossing through or over foreign territory.

"U.S. airlines' flights are operating normally," said Katie Connell, a spokeswoman for Airlines for America, an industry trade group. "We are in communication with both U.S. and Chinese civil aviation authorities and continue to follow standard international flight notification protocol and procedures."

Although the U.S. has not recognized China's new claim, the State Department on Friday said it had advised U.S. airlines to comply with China's demand for advance notification of any flights through a new "air defense identification zone," which Chinese officials first declared on Nov. 23.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said U.S. air carriers were being advised to take all steps they consider necessary to operate safely in the East China Sea region.

U.S. airline officials said they could not provide data about the volume of civilian air traffic that passes through the disputed air space.

Experts said the situation will not have a big impact on passenger air travel, but has huge geopolitical implications.

Dean Cheng, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation who specializes in Chinese political and security issues, said China is "acting in a way that is very provocative and very dangerous."

He said the new Obama administration guidance was issued "with an eye toward averting a tragedy" involving a civilian airliner. He cited, for example, a 1983 incident when a Korean Airlines passenger jet veered off course into Soviet airspace. Soviet jet fighters shot the plane down, killing all 269 people aboard.

"I'm not saying the Chinese are going to do that," Cheng said. "But there's an implicit threat here … (and) the reason this is so dangerous is we don't know what the Chinese rules of engagement are."

Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs' subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, similarly said it was a smart safety move for the Obama administration to urge compliance.

"Despite our serious concerns about China's recklessly provocative behavior in the East China Sea region, it is prudent for the State Department to advise our commercial airlines to take necessary precautions to ensure their safe travel in the area," Chabot said. "The safety of Americans abroad is a chief concern. That said, the State Department guidance does not, and should not, concede China's highly suspect claim to this territory."

Cheng said airline pilots are probably "going to be very careful when they transit through there, to make sure their transponders are working and they are absolutely on their flight plan."

China announced last week that all aircraft entering the zone — a maritime area between China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan — must notify Chinese authorities beforehand and that it would take unspecified defensive measures against those that don't comply. Along with the U.S., other neighboring countries, including Japan, have said they will not honor the new zone — believed aimed at claiming disputed territory — and have said it unnecessarily raises tensions.

The United States, Japan and South Korea all have said they sent military flights into the zone over the past week without notifying China.

In Beijing, the Ministry of Defense said the Chinese fighter jets identified and monitored two American military reconnaissance aircraft and a mix of 10 Japanese early-warning, reconnaissance and fighter planes during their flights through the zone early Friday.

"China's air force has faithfully carried out its mission and tasks, with China's navy, since it was tasked with patrolling the East China Sea air defense identification zone. It monitored throughout the entire flights, made timely identification and ascertained the types," ministry spokesman Col. Shen Jinke said in a statement on its website.

In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman, Army Col. Steve Warren, said when asked about China's statement: "The U.S. will continue to partner with our allies and will operate in the area as normal."

Japanese officials declined to confirm details of any flights, but said routine missions in the area were continuing.

"We are simply conducting our ordinary warning and surveillance activity like before. We have not encountered any abnormal instances so far, therefore we have not made any announcement," Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters in Tokyo.

With the increased U.S., Japanese and Chinese military activity in the region, Cheng said, there is a frightening risk of an accidental clash in the disputed airspace, which could further escalate the crisis.

The zone is seen primarily as China's latest bid to bolster its claim over a string of uninhabited Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Beijing has been ratcheting up its sovereignty claims since Tokyo's nationalization of the islands last year. However, there are questions whether China has the technical ability to fully enforce the zone due to a shortage of early warning radar aircraft and in-flight refueling capability.

Contributing: The Associated Press