US to ignore China air defense zone over South China Sea

MANILA, Philippines — As regional tension continues to mount over the disputed South China Sea, China has not denied possibilities of building an air defense identification zone (ADIZ), which the United States said it will not recognize.

Sr. Col. Yang Yujun, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, said China reserves the right to declare an ADIZ over one of the world's most important trade routes. An ADIZ requires any third-party aircraft to identify itself and declare its intentions to an authority before being allowed entry.

"What I need to underscore here is that to set up an ADIZ is the right of a sovereign state and we don't need other countries to make suggestions," Yujun said at a press conference in Beijing last week.

The statement was made as the US Navy has upped the number of freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, more than 80 percent of which China claims under its sovereignty. Recently, the US deployed a small armada to navigate the contested waters.

Senior Colonel Yang Yujun, spokesman for China's defense department, answers reporters' questions at a regular press conference on March 31, 2016. China Ministry of National Defense/He Youwen/Released

While declaring an ADIZ is not a violation of international law, an ADIZ over the South China Sea where China has built military facilities can be a major security concern for China's neighbors and can impede global trade.

"Many fear an ADIZ would provide the basis for China's air control over the Spratly Islands and could constrain US operations in that area," said Preeti Nalwa, a non-resident fellow at Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, in a report earlier this year.

US Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work last week said US forces will ignore any Chinese declaration of a secured airspace as this does not have any basis in international law.

"We've said over and over we will fly, sail and go where international law allows," Work told the Washington Post.

Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command, is similarly concerned that the Asian powerhouse has sounded off its position on declaring an ADIZ. Its recent activities, such as beefing up advanced outposts atop reefs, have also been deemed as indicators of the planned move.

"I'm concerned, in the sense that I would find that destabilizing and provocative," Harris said in February.

Harris said, however, that the US will simply dismiss China's ADIZ as it did in 2013 when Beijing put up an air exclusion zone over the East China Sea near Japan, one of the US's key allies in the region.

"We would ignore it, just like we've ignored the ADIZ that they've put in place in the East China Sea… (Secretary of State John Kerry) asked China to not declare an ADIZ [over the South China Sea]," Harris said.