The new zone, which has been pretty much ignored by everyone, including that guy with the gyrocopter in Mad Max 3, is essentially nothing more than dick-measuring/pissing contest with China pitched in a battle of will against, er, China.
Technically, the ADIZ requires flight plans and radio frequencies to be registered with China when flights are routed through the airspace. The deep sighs from the Pentagon were palpable when a spokesman reiterated American's non-compliance with the redefined zone.
Washington “continued to follow our normal procedures, which include not filing flight plans, not radioing ahead and not registering our frequencies”.
Of course, docking about diplomatically comes naturally to Chinese politicians, who have managed to pick the worst place in the world to play chicken. The China Daily, usually so thoughtful and even-minded about such issues once again choked on it's own baozi writing that
“The Japanese and U.S. complaints that the ADIZ is a 'unilateral' move that changes 'the status quo' are inherently false. The U.S. did not consult others when it set up and redrew its ADIZs. Japan never got the nod from China when it expanded its ADIZ, which overlaps Chinese territories and exclusive economic zone. Under what obligation is China supposed to seek Japanese and U.S. consent in a matter of self-defence?
The obligation of starting a war with two countries would probably be a pretty big obligation, but China must play the role of the victim in all of this, even though they're the ones that changed the rules in the first place.
Where Japan is involved, there's lots of complaining that nothing is fair, and that the evil Japanese devils will invade the motherland given half a chance, which given the rate at which China is claiming obscure islands in the area, won't be far off. The China Daily piece goes on (and on and on) saying that the new zoning doesn't target any specific country, just like Homeland Security doesn't target any specific racial group.
The ADIZ is completely unenforceable, unless Xi Jing Ping plans to go a bit Kim Jong Il on y'all by shooting down commercial passenger aircraft, and taking potshots with anti-aircraft fire at US Air Force planes probably isn't going to secure a Nobel Peace Prize.
China complained (as loud as ever) that the US is taking sides, although with a large military presence in both South Korea and Japan, it was hardly surprising that the US couldn't give tinker's cuss about the new ADIZ. Psychotically changing rules and regulations in the bi-polar way that characterises Chinese diplomacy might well bolster support for the Party with the Chinese, but I just get the feeling China really has to wake-up around to the idea that no-one gets it's deal with posturing and preening instead of actually doing something.
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