Two unarmed US B-52 bombers on a training
mission flew over disputed islands in the East China Sea without
informing Beijing, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday,
defying China's declaration of a new airspace defense zone in the region
The flight on Monday night did not prompt a response
from China, and the White House on Tuesday
urged Beijing to resolve its dispute with Japan over the
islands diplomatically, without resorting to "threats or inflammatory
language."
China published coordinates for an East
China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone over the weekend and warned it
would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed
to identify themselves properly in the airspace.
The zone covers most of that sea and includes the skies over
islands at the heart of a territorial dispute with Japan.
"The policy announced by the Chinese over the weekend
is unnecessarily inflammatory," White House spokesman Josh
Earnest told reporters in California, where President Barack
Obama is travelling.
"These are the kinds of differences that should not be
addressed with threats or inflammatory language, but rather can and should be
resolved diplomatically," he said.
The dispute flared ahead of a trip to the region by Vice
President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to travel to Japan early
next week and also has stops in China and South Korea. The White
House announced the trip in early November.
Two US B-52 bombers carried out the flight, part of a
long-planned exercise, on Monday night Eastern Standard Time, a US
military official said, identifying the type of aircraft on condition of
anonymity.
Pentagon officials said there was no Chinese response.
"We have conducted operations in the area of the
Senkakus. We have continued to follow our normal procedures, which include not
filing flight plans, not radioing ahead and not registering our
frequencies," spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said, using the
Japanese name for the islands.
The United States and close
ally Japan have sharply criticised China's airspace declaration,
with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel calling it a
"destabilising attempt to alter the status quo in the region." He
said on Saturday the United States would not change how it operates
there.
Some airlines in the region agreed to begin complying with
the Chinese identification measures, which effectively force countries to
recognise Beijing's authority there.
But Japan's two biggest airlines
- Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings - bowed to
a Japanese government request to stop complying with the Chinese
demands for flight plans and other information. They will stop providing the
information beginning Wednesday, spokesmen for the carriers said.
Experts said the Chinese move was aimed at chipping away
at Tokyo's claim to administrative control over the area, including the
tiny uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japanand the
Diaoyu in China.
While Washington does not take a position on the sovereignty
of the islands, it recognises that Japan has administrative control
over them and is therefore bound by treaty to defend Japan in the
event of an armed conflict.
The Pentagon said the training exercise
"involved two aircraft flying from Guam and returning
to Guam." Warren said the US military aircraft were neither observed
nor were contacted by the Chinese aircraft.
China's Defence Ministry said on Monday it had lodged
protests with the US and Japanese embassies in Beijing over the
criticism from Washington and Tokyo of the zone.
China also summoned Japan's ambassador,
warning Tokyo to "stop words and actions which create friction
and harm regional stability," China's Foreign Ministry said.
Meanwhile, Tokyoand Seoul summoned Chinese diplomats to protest.
In addition, China sent its sole aircraft carrier
on a training mission into the South China Sea on Tuesday amid
maritime disputes with the Philippines and other neighbors and
tension over its airspace defense zone.
It is the first time it was sent to the South
China Sea.
Australia summoned China's ambassador to express
concern over its imposition of an "Air Defence Identification Zone"
over the East China Sea, the foreign minister said on Tuesday,
decrying the move as unhelpful in a region beset by tension.
Reuters Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-defies-china-with-b52-flight-over-disputed-islands-20131127-2y8r2.html#ixzz2lsgo09I1
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