BEIJING: China on Thursday ruled out establishing an air defence zone along the India-China border like it recently did over the disputed islands in the East China Sea, saying such zones are created only in coastal areas beyond territorial airspace.
“I want to clarify that on the concept of air defence identification zone (ADIZ), it is an area of airspace established by coastal state beyond its territorial airspace. So, the question does not arise,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a media briefing here.
He was responding to a question whether China has plans to declare ADIZ along the disputed India-China border, similar to a newly-declared zone over the disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Officials say air defence zones are established for coastal areas beyond the 12 nautical mile-territorial waters but not the land borders which have well-defined airspaces.
However, China apparently is keeping its options open for declaring such a zone over the disputed South China Sea as a defence ministry spokesman here said, replying to a question whether more such zones will be created.
“China will establish other air defence identification zones at an appropriate time after completing preparations,” he said.
China has already sent its first aircraft carrier Liaoning for military drills.
The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei contest China’s claims of sovereignty over most of the South China Sea.
The US, Japan, South Korea and Australia have already criticised the ADIZ over the East China Sea openly.
China acknowledged that two US B-52 bombers flew through it on Tuesday for over two hours defying the ADIZ rules.
Qin admitted that a South Korean plane, too, has violated the ADIZ rules without informing about the flight.
At the same time, he said many civilian airlines of various countries started informing their flight plans to Chinese aviation authorities, he said. “As per ADIZ rule aircraft flying though it should submit plans to China. We hope all sides, including civil aviation side, can cooperate actively to maintain flight security. To my information, so far many airlines of many countries filed relevant application to China’s civil aviation departments,” he said, responding to a question whether Beijing will take action against violating passenger planes. (PTI)