Recently, China declared an air defence identification zone in the East China Sea, overlapping existing ADIZs in the region. ADIZs are not new, many other countries have them, and they extend well beyond a nation's territorial airspace. In declaring her own ADIZ, China is not doing anything new, especially when you look at her neighbours, who have their own ADIZs that extend beyond their territorial airspace.
What is different, though, is the media attention given to this, and how China's ADIZ continues to be misrepresented as an "air defence zone", which connotes that China has a right to defend the airspace in that declared zone. Nope, sorry, that's not what an ADIZ is.
But here you have someone create a small flame out of nothing, and the rest of the people fanning the flames. Even Channel NewsAsia, supposedly a leader in regional news, is not spared. It uses the term "air defence zone" and "air defence identification zone" interchangeably, even though they obviously refer to different things.
China creates air defence zone over Japan-controlled islands
Moving ahead, since there is no international law governing ADIZs, those who are fanning the flames should stop, before they put their own ADIZs' legality at risk. After all, if you are going to challenge China's ADIZ, there is no reason why China shouldn't challenge your ADIZ. A healthy debate would be how to come up with international legislation to govern ADIZ (and subsequently realigning existing ADIZs to those rules).
What is different, though, is the media attention given to this, and how China's ADIZ continues to be misrepresented as an "air defence zone", which connotes that China has a right to defend the airspace in that declared zone. Nope, sorry, that's not what an ADIZ is.
But here you have someone create a small flame out of nothing, and the rest of the people fanning the flames. Even Channel NewsAsia, supposedly a leader in regional news, is not spared. It uses the term "air defence zone" and "air defence identification zone" interchangeably, even though they obviously refer to different things.
China creates air defence zone over Japan-controlled islands
Moving ahead, since there is no international law governing ADIZs, those who are fanning the flames should stop, before they put their own ADIZs' legality at risk. After all, if you are going to challenge China's ADIZ, there is no reason why China shouldn't challenge your ADIZ. A healthy debate would be how to come up with international legislation to govern ADIZ (and subsequently realigning existing ADIZs to those rules).
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