US Edition 
China's behaviour over air defence zone 'unsettling', says US
China's implementation of a newly-declared air defence zone has "unsettled" its neighbours, US says, as Beijing foreign ministry says it has "determination and capability" to defend sovereignty
The US said it intended to ignore the controversial air defence zone imposed by Beijing in the East China Sea, raising the stakes in the confrontation between the two Pacific powers.
One day after after US B-52 bombers flew defiantly through the “Air Defence Identification Zone” (ADIZ) China established over islands it disputes with Japan, Washington looked to reassure its Asian allies it would stand firm against Beijing’s territorial ambitions.
Chuck Hagel, the US secretary of defence, condemned the air zone as a “potentially destabilising unilateral action designed to change the status quo in the region”, saying it raised the risk of “misunderstanding and miscalculation”.
He promised his Japanese counterpart that “US military operations will not in any way change as a result of China’s announcement” and vowed that the two countries’ defence treaty also applied to the disputed Senkaku Islands which lie beneath the ADIZ.
A map showing the outline of China's new air defense zone on the website of the Chinese Ministry of Defense (AP)
The White House said Joe Biden, the US vice-president, would raise American concerns over the issue with China’s leaders during a trip to the region next week.
US officials said the vice-president would discuss an “emerging pattern of behaviour by China that is unsettling to China’s own neighbours, and raising questions about how China operates in international space”.
Beijing meanwhile insisted it had both the “determination and capability” to defend its interests, following what some analysts said was a surprisingly forthright demonstration of resolve by the US bomber flights.
The pilots did not notify Chinese authorities, as Beijing had demanded under the zone’s rules, and the US insisted the flight had been long scheduled.
The disputed Senkaku islands (AP)
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said: “The Chinese government has enough determination and capability to defend national sovereignty.” The spokesman reportedly ducked a question about whether Beijing’s failure to react to the presence of two American B-52s left it looking like a “paper tiger”.
In a statement, China’s defence ministry said it had “monitored” and “identified” the American planes “in a timely way.”
“The Chinese side has the ability to effectively manage and control the relevant airspace,” it said. The official reaction was muted but Chinese academics said Beijing was likely furious with what it would see as the US meddling in its backyard.
Sun Zhe, the head of the Centre for US-China Relations at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University, condemned the flights as an “open provocation from the US” that had been deliberately designed to “embarrass” China’s leaders.
“The US provocation threatens to turn the conflict between China and Japan into a conflict between China and the US,” Prof Sun told The Telegraph.
Further “provocations” would compel China to “strike back” so as not to appear weak at home or abroad, he added.
Professor Zhang Liangui, from the Communist Party School’s International Strategic Studies centre in Beijing, also labelled the flights a “provocation to China” but declined to speculate over Beijing’s likely response.
“The US really shouldn’t get involved,” he said.
Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, the Asia-Pacific Director at the US Institute of Peace, said Beijing had “probably miscalculated the level of pushback” from Washington.
“I don’t think they were doing it with a view to involving the US,” she said.
Professor Zhang, from the Party School, said the ADIZ had been intended to “emphasise China’s stance” over the disputed islands, referred to as the Senkaku by Tokyo and the Diaoyu by Beijing.
Under Xi Jinping, who has been president since March, China appears to be taking a much tougher line over its long-standing territorial dispute with Japan.
Meanwhile, as Beijing began articulating its response to the US, the USS George Washington and its associated battle group prepared to start exercises with vessels from Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Forces.
The joint manoeuvres — which will simulate a response to a theoretical attack on Japanese territory by an unnamed enemy represent the second significant show of force in the region this week.
An editorial in China’s English-language Global Times, a state-run tabloid whose often strident pieces are designed for a foreign audience, claimed the ADIZ would help reduce tensions in the region by serving as a “shock absorber” that would help reduce miscalculations.
However, Ms Kleine-Ahlbrandt warned that toxic relations and almost non-existent communication between diplomats in Tokyo and Beijing meant there were “many different scenarios” in which the ADIZ could cause the simmering dispute to escalate.
“If you don’t put it in the hands of capable, more modern diplomats that have a record of wanting to de-escalate I just think you are in a pretty bad situation,” she said, pointing out that “an aerial encounter carries a much higher risk for incident than a maritime skirmish”.
“The risk is not of a deliberate full-scale war between China and Japan so much as an incident ranging from miscalculation to a certain actor taking it too far to an accident that is badly handled and how that could spin out of control,” she added.