Why China’s ADIZ Has No Legal Significance

There’s been an avalanche of news on the East China Sea over the past week. As I discussed in my previous post, China recently announced a new Air Defense Identification Zone (“ADIZ”), thereby requiring foreign aircraft flying over the Sea to provide navigation plans and means of identification to Chinese authorities, and to follow any instructions from the same. China’s armed forces “will adopt defensive emergency measures” against any aircraft that fails to cooperate. The reactions have been uniformly negative. Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States have all expressed opposition, while Japan, South Korea, and the United States each sent military aircraft into the ADIZ without notifying China or otherwise complying with the announced rules. Sensing that they had overreached, Chinese authorities subsequently exempted U.S. aircraft as long as they do not “go too far.” Japan, however, is still subject to the ADIZ. My last post explained that the legality of all of this hinges on whether China has title to the Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands that are located within the ADIZ, and on how aggressively China chooses to enforce the measure.

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China’s New Air Defense Identification Zone

£¨Í¼±í£©[¶«º£·À¿Õʶ±ðÇø]¶«º£·À¿Õʶ±ðÇø»®ÉèʾÒâͼThree days ago China’s Ministry of National Defense established an Air Defense Identification Zone (“ADIZ”) for the East China Sea. According to the announcement, foreign aircraft operating within the ADIZ will be subject to a couple of requirements: First, they must provide Chinese authorities with various means of identification, including by reporting flight plans, maintaining two-way radio communications and responding in a timely manner to inquiries, displaying clear marks of nationality, and maintaining the operation of any secondary radar transponders. Second, the aircraft must “follow the instructions” of Chinese authorities. If any aircraft fails to provide identification or follow instructions, “China’s armed forces will adopt defensive emergency measures.” The ADIZ is outlined in red in the map above and, most notably, includes the air territory above the contested Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands. Japan has warned that the ADIZ creates a risk of “unpredictable events,” while Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said that they are “deeply concerned” about China’s announcement and committed to defending Japan. The obvious purpose of the ADIZ is to further whittle away at Japan’s de facto control over the Islands. In this post, I want to raise two brief points on the legality of this measure.

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