Japan Pool, via Jiji Press
A Japanese patrol plane, pictured in 2011, flying over the disputed islands in the East China Sea.
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: November 28, 2013
TOKYO — China sent fighter jets into its newly declared air defense zone Thursday on what state media called the country’s first air patrol since it declared control of the airspace. The announcement came hours after Japan and South Korea sent their own military planes into the airspace over the East China Sea, testing China’s resolve to enforce its declaration.
Multimedia
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The New York Times
The announcement of the flights came just days after unarmed American B-52 bombers flew through the same zone in defiance of China. Beijing later said that it had monitored the American bombers but had chosen not to take action even though the planes did not tell the Chinese they were coming, as the government now demands.
On Thursday, the top Japanese government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, said that the Chinese had not been notified of the Japanese flights, and reported that China did not scramble its fighter jets to intercept the planes.
The South Korean government announced that it, too, had flown aircraft through the zone, on Wednesday, without alerting Beijing, a flight Chinese officials said they had monitored. The South Korean plane was a surveillance aircraft, the South Korean government said.
Like Japan, South Korea claims sovereignty over territory in the zone, but enjoys warmer ties with Beijing than Japan does.
Japan did not specify how many patrols had flown through the zone or when the flights were made.
Japan, the United States and South Korea have all refused to recognize the air zone, which includes the airspace above disputed islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in Chinese. The islands are administered by Japan, but also claimed by China.
When China declared the zone on Saturday, it said that it would police the airspace with military aircraft, a move that raised the specter of Japanese and Chinese fighter jets intercepting each other. The move drew immediate criticism from both Japan and the United States, which is obligated by treaty to defend Japan from attack.
China’s failure so far to enforce the zone appears to support the view of some Japanese officials that the declaration of control was part of a broader, long-term strategy to try to pry the islands out of Japan’s grip. China has been doing this by sending coast guard ships around the islands, dispatching patrol aircraft and now claiming the airspace above — all steps, Japanese officials say, aimed at proving that China has just as much legal basis as Japan to claim that it administers the islands.
