On 23rd November 2013 the Chinese government declared the establishment of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) within which all aircrafts should report their flight schedules in advance to the Chinese public authorities. All the other littoral states have established zones of this type as well. Controversial however is the fact that the Chinese ADIZ overlaps with the Korean and the Japanese ones. The most problematic aspect is the situation of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, which have been under Japanese control since 1985, but are regarded as part of the Chinese national territory by the People's Republic of China and Taiwan.
On the part of the USA and its allies, the Chinese actions were politically condemned and taken as an attempt at altering the status quo. Accordingly the reactions were harsh: China was called on to draw back the ADIZ, airline companies were encouraged not to report flight plans beyond Chinese national territory, South Korea in turn significantly expanded its own ADIZ. Indeed the USA and South Korea have relativized their positions again, the divisions between China and Japan however remain deep.
In HSFK-Report 9/2013 Chinas Luftverteidigungszone und der Konflikt um die Diaoyu/Senkaku-InselnPeter Kreuzer analyzes the chain of events starting from the declaration of a Chinese ADIZ: Were the harsh reactions appropriate or does China act within the scope of international customary law? The report embeds the current dispute into the protracted sovereignty conflict over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands and presents a few possible courses of action which could aim at de-escalation in the short run and work towards conflict resolution in the long run.
This HSFK-Report is available at PRIF for 6€ or can be downloaded for free.