In response to China’s declaration of an air defense identification zone over the East China Sea that includes the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, the Japanese and U.S. governments have confirmed that the Self-Defense Forces and U.S. forces will cooperate to strengthen warning and surveillance activities over the sea.
To block China’s move to change the status quo by force, which Japan and the United States consider to be an unacceptable unilateral action, the SDF plans to set up a new permanent unit of the Air-Self Defense Force’s early-warning E-2C aircraft at Naha Base in the prefecture, and expand deployment of the Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance drone.
At a press conference Thursday, Shigeru Iwasaki, chief of the SDF Joint Staff, told reporters he spoke by videophone Wednesday with Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command.
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000834358
US, Japan monitor Liaoning’s course to South China Sea
China’s aircraft carrier Liaoning sailed through the Taiwan Strait to enter the South China Sea on Nov. 28, escorted by two destroyers and two frigates.
Although the fleet did not pass the waters close to the disputed Diaoyutai (Diaoyu or Senkaku) islands, its maiden journey to the South China Sea has put the United States and Japan on alert.
Sources close to the Chinese military told China’s Global Times that the Liaoning kicked off its training mission as soon as it left the Taiwan Strait.
“The training has become more like active combat since it was closely followed by American and Japanese scouting vessels and aircraft,” a source said.
In Taiwan, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Luo Shou-he noted that the Liaoning and its escorts maintained a course on the western side of the center line of the Strait.
A newspaper photo showed that all ships at the military base in Keelung, northern Taiwan, were on stand-by while the Chinese fleet made its way south.
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20131130000116&cid=1101
Japan has instructed its aircraft not to observe China’s rules.
But a number of regional commercial airlines – including Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Korean Air – have said they will comply.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25165503
US warns commercial airlines to keep clear of China’s disputed territory, but Japan says ‘ignore them’
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/us-warns-commercial-airlines-to-keep-clear-of-chinas-disputed-territory-but-japan-says-ignore-them/story-e6frfq80-1226770440940?from=public_rss
P8-A Poseidon Squadron At NAS Deploys To Japan
http://jacksonville.cityandpress.com/node/7132995?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Massive naval power at heart of America’s look eastwards
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/30/world/asia/asia-us-navy-power/index.html?eref=edition&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Navy’s new patrol aircraft is deploying for the first time ever and the War Eagles have the honors to take it overseas.
The P-8A Poseidon is the first new marine patrol and reconnaissance aircraft the Navy has had in 50 years.
Patrol Squadron 16, the War Eagles (VP-16), the first to switch to the new aircraft, are now taking the airplane to Japan for it’s first deployment overseas.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/(X(1)A(45CYfj4VzQEkAAAAMTI1MzNkMzEtZjkyNC00Yjg3LWFhNTYtMGRlZTc3ZTllY2Y0BX1qp3JJr-7Wm0Vpn8UgREE_O581))/news/local/article/336965/3/P8-A-Poseidon-squadron-at-NAS-deploys-to-Japan
Here’s What a Shooting War in the East China Sea Might Look Like
Tensions are escalating as China tries to claim a new zone of airspace authority—which the U.S. promptly ignores. Here’s what to expect if this cold war involving Japan, China, the U.S., and other East Asian nations heats up.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/heres-what-a-shooting-war-in-the-east-china-sea-might-look-like-16205950
TAIPEI: Taiwan said on Monday its military planes have made about 30 flights into a part of China’s newly declared air defence zone which overlaps a similar Taiwanese zone.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-12-02/china/44656425_1_east-china-sea-air-force-flight-plans
US Navy deploys new surveillance aircraft to Japan.
http://news.yahoo.com/us-navy-deploys-surveillance-aircraft-japan-181434547.html
Beijing’s recent establishment of a new air defense zone in the East China Sea is exacerbating long-running disputes with its neighbors Japan and Taiwan — and threatens to draw the US military into a larger regional conflict.
If it were only a matter of distance, the solution to a dispute over a small group of hotly contested islands in the East China Sea would be simple. Taiwan, which is just 200 kilometers (125 miles) away from the islands, would take the prize. The Chinese mainland is farther off, at 330 kilometers away, and the Japanese island of Okinawa even more distant, at 400 kilometers. Why then shouldn’t small Taiwan take control of the five uninhabited islands and three rock outcroppings, known as the Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan?
While Taiwan does lay claim to the islands, so do its more powerful neighbors, China and Japan. And the dispute is, unfortunately, not about distance. It has to do with influence and natural resources, with hegemony and nationalism, and with bitter historical memories and fresh, global aspirations — in short, it’s a toxic mixture of geopolitics. In fact, a military crisis is brewing in East Asia — one that is being played out hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from these desolate islands.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/tensions-in-east-china-sea-threaten-to-create-regional-conflict-a-936618.html#ref=rss
What do the riots in the Ukraine, Iran throwing its weight around in the Persian Gulf and China’s new air defense zone all have in common?
Barack Obama and his Post-American world.
Nations exercise power within spheres of influence.
As the American sphere of influence shrinks to nothing; Iran, China and Russia are using the opportunity to expand their own spheres of influence.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obamas-post-american-world/
The Coming Oil Wars
War for oil isn’t new. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, its principal grievance was the American decision to cut off most of its oil supply.
On November 23, China declared a new “air defense identification zone” that extends to the north close to South Korea, to the south within miles of Taiwan, and to the east to encompass the Senkaku Islands, a short chain of uninhabitable islands off southern Japan that the Japanese have claimed ownership of since 1895.
By imposing this zone, China is claiming sovereignty over the Senkakus and all the waters within the zone. In an immediate move to enforce that claim, the Chinese demanded that all aircraft flying into the zone declare themselves, file a flight plan, and obey the instructions of Chinese air controllers.
http://www.phantomreport.com/the-coming-oil-wars
Biden: US ‘deeply concerned’ over Chinese moves
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/03/21734225-us-deeply-concerned-over-chinese-moves-says-biden?lite
US: China air defense zone won’t change military exercises
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/12/03/337928/us-to-continue-drills-in-china-nofly-zone/
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