(OT) Team Obama Changes Course, Appears to Accept China Air Defense Zone, Says Foreign Policy Magazine

Japan looks so solidly under the bus now, even as the ruling coalition of Liberal Democratic Party and Komei Party (plus Your Party and probably Japan Restoration Party) pushes the passage of the State Secrecy Protection Law in the Upper House of the Japanese national Diet, trying to do the bidding - supposedly - of the US Obama administration.

From Foreign Policy (12/4/2013; part, emphasis is mine):

Team Obama Changes Course, Appears to Accept China Air Defense Zone

Top Obama administration and Pentagon officials signaled a willingness to temporarily accept China's new, controversial air defense identification zone on Wednesday. Those officials expressed disapproval for the way in which the Asian power has flexed its muscles, and cautioned China not to implement the zone. But they also carved out wiggle room in which the United States and China ultimately could find common ground on the issue, indicating that they may be willing to live with the zone for now -- as long as China backs off its demand that all aircraft traveling through it check in first.

"It wasn't the declaration of the ADIZ that actually was destabilizing," said Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, America's highest-ranking military officer. "It was their assertion that they would cause all aircraft entering the ADIZ to report regardless of whether they were intending to enter into the sovereign airspace of China. And that is destabilizing."

That's a change from just a few days ago, when U.S. Vice President Joe Biden demanded that China take back its declaration of the zone. And it's another demonstration that China's recent decisions have forced the United States to tread carefully. On Wednesday, Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing for more than five hours, according to a senior administration official. In brief public remarks midway through the marathon session, Biden didn't mention the air defense zone at all.

...In meetings in Beijing on Wednesday, Biden laid out the U.S. position in detail, reiterating that the United States does not recognize the new zone and has deep concerns about it, a senior administration official said. Biden told Xi that the United States wants China to take steps to lower tensions in the region, avoid enforcement actions that could lead to crisis, and to establish communication with Japan and other countries in the region to avoid altercations, the administration official added. Privately, Biden did not call for the air defense identification zone it to be rolled back -- something administration officials had done Monday while Biden was visiting Japan. Instead, the vice president asked the Chinese leader to be careful about how his country operated the zone going forward.

"He indicated to Xi that we are looking to China to take steps as we move forward to lower tensions, to avoid enforcement actions that could lead to crisis, and to establish channels of communication with Japan, but also with their other neighbors to avoid the risk of mistake, miscalculation, accident or escalation," the official told reporters in Beijing.

(Full article at the link)

"As long as you don't actually implement and enforce it, your ADIZ is OK with us in the US (wink wink)" is essentially what VP Biden and General Dempsey are saying.

Much like President Obama issuing executive orders to let businesses break the law (Obamacare) for one year without penalty.

Meanwhile, after the all-night session in the Upper House that covered pending legislations including the State Security Protection Law, the Special Committee for National Security of the Upper House is in session right now. There is no TV station covering the proceeding, and the livecast of the Upper House is sketchy at best due to a large number of access requests from net citizens. So here's Yahoo Japan, if you're interested and understand Japanese, who has started the netcast:

Live streaming video by Ustream

The choreography is that the Committee vote is expected in the afternoon, and then the bill goes to the full Upper House floor either in the evening for vote or tomorrow, by extending the Diet session by one day. Watching the questions and answers in the Committee, neither side - the Abe administration and the ruling coalition, or the opposition - doesn't seem to quite know what they are talking about.

Remember Boy Wonder, aka Mayor of Osaka City of comfort women fame? He's trying his best to get his name printed in the newspaper by making fuss about the law that he and his party are quite in favor of. Right now, Boy Wonder is saying he thinks the law is necessary, but he doesn't agree with the vote today.

Just like in the Lower House, his party will be happy as long as the bill is not voted on today.

It is all happening as the US has thrown Japan under the bus and Japan doesn't even know it.

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(OT) Obama Administration Instructs US Commercial Airlines to File Flight Plans with China in Newly Declared Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ)

...leaving Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hung to dry. Nice job, Mr. Obama.

After kindly informing China the other day that its two B52 bombers that flew inside the Air Defense Identification Zone over Senkaku Islands were unarmed, the United States government now says it is requesting the US commercial airlines to adhere to China's new rules and submit flight plans to China, to be safe.

The State Department Office of the Spokesperson (from 11/27/2013 daily press briefing, released on 11/29/2013; emphasis is mine):

China's Declared ADIZ - Guidance for U.S. Air Carriers

Question: Is there any specific guidance or information we are giving to U.S. carriers operating in China's recently declared Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ)?

Answer: Freedom of overflight and other internationally lawful uses of sea and airspace are essential to prosperity, stability, and security in the Pacific. We remain deeply concerned by China's November 23 declaration of an "East China Sea Air Identification Zone."

The U.S. government generally expects that U.S. carriers operating internationally will operate consistent with NOTAMs (Notices to Airmen) issued by foreign countries. Our expectation of operations by U.S. carriers consistent with NOTAMs does not indicate U.S. government acceptance of China's requirements for operating in the newly declared ADIZ.

Well, even NHK News is taking this as "acceptance".

From NHK News (11/30/2013):

これについてアメリカ国務省は、２９日、報道官の談話を発表し「アメリカ政府は、国際的に運航するアメリカの航空会社は外国政府が発表する航空情報に従うべきだと考えている」として、アメリカの航空各社に対し、中国当局へのフライトプラン＝飛行計画書の提出を、事実上求めていく考えを明らかにしました。

[NHK quoting the State Department answer (second paragraph of the answer above), then says that] the US State Department has made it clear that it is the intention of the US government to effectively request the US airlines to file flight plans with the Chinese authority.

NHK also quotes part of the New York Times article on the matter, with the officials in the Obama administration putting safety first.

According to The New York Times article (11/29/2013):

While the United States continued to defy China by sending military planes into the zone unannounced, administration officials said they had made the decision to urge civilian planes to adhere to Beijing’s new rules in part because they worried about an unintended confrontation.

... It was not immediately clear if the Obama administration had notified Japan, a close ally, of its decision.

Well they hadn't. At all.

The clearly irate Ministry of Foreign Affairs official says they haven't heard anything like that from the US counterpart, as reported by Mainichi Shinbun (11/30/2013):

防空識別圏:米国の新方針に外務省「聞いていない」

ADIZ: Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the new US policy "We haven't been informed"

米政府の方針について、外務省幹部は３０日午前、毎日新聞の取材に「全く聞いていない。これまでの米国の行動とは全く異なる対応だ」と語った。

A top official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spoke with Mainichi Shinbun in the morning of November 30 on the US government policy, and said "We haven't been informed at all. It is a completely different response from what the US has been doing."

日本政府は中国の防空識別圏設定について「何ら効力を有するものではなく、これまでのルール通りの運用を行っていく」としており、中国への飛行計画提出は不要との立場。国土交通省を通じ航空各社に、こうした方針を伝えている。政府は今後、米国に詳細を確認する方針だ。

The Japanese government's stance on the Chinese ADIZ is that it does not have any enforceability, the Japanese government will continue to follow the existing rules and that there is no need to submit flight plans to China. The Japanese airlines have been informed of the government stance by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The Japanese government will ask the US for the details of the new policy.

It was only several days ago the Secretary of State John Kerry and the Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel issued a strong statement condemning China.

But it was also only several days ago that National Security Advisor Susan Rise made a strange speech at Georgetown University which was interpreted in Japan as a sign that the US will form a partnership with China as the two biggest powers in the world, leaving Japan hanging in the air.

Ms. Rice, of lying-through-her-teeth-on-Benghazi fame, indeed said, "When it comes to China, we seek to operationalize a new model of major power relations."

She mentioned China 20 times, Korea 11 times, Japan 7 times. No mention of Senkaku Islands.

(Operationalize? What kind of ugly verb is that? DCSpeak?)

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(OT) China Says Japan Is the Prime Target of Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ)

The US (who declared to the world that its B52 bombers were unarmed), Australia, South Korea do not matter, according to the editorial in the English language paper Global Times by China's People's Daily.

Global Times (11/29/2013; emphasis is mine):

Japan prime target of ADIZ tussle

Japan has been giving fierce reaction to China's demarcation of the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

Japanese Minister of Defense Itsunori Onodera has made malicious remarks almost daily since last Saturday when the zone was set up. Perhaps that just proves a folk saying: The more guilty one feels, the more unscrupulous he will be.

Apart from Japan, the US and Australia have also rebuked Beijing for its new air defense rules with provocative remarks or actions, and even South Korea's foreign ministry expressed formal regrets over the ADIZ.

Nonetheless, all the criticism and provocation will not pose a real challenge for the newly created ADIZ. It is a fact that China has already established its ADIZ over the East China Sea.

Maybe an imminent conflict will be waged between China and Japan. As a staunch supporter of Tokyo, Washington is expected to refrain from confronting Beijing directly in the East China Sea, at least for now. Canberra and Seoul just chimed in.

The Chinese government is supposed to remain resolute in its strategies while taking flexible and resilient measures to cope with unexpected accidents.

If the US does not go too far, we will not target it in safeguarding our air defense zone. What we should do at present is to firmly counter provocative actions from Japan. Australia, having no real conflict with China now, can be ignored at the moment.

Seoul understands it is not the target of China's ADIZ, plus it has tensions with Japan right now, therefore, China has no need to change its actions toward South Korea.

We should carry out timely countermeasures without hesitation against Japan when it challenges China's newly-declared ADIZ. If Tokyo flies its aircraft over the zone, we will be bound to send our plane to its ADIZ.

If the trend continues, there will likely be frictions and confrontations and even tension in the air like in the Cold War era between the US and the Soviet Union. It is therefore an urgent task for China to further train its air force to make full preparation for potential conflicts.

We are willing to engage in a protracted confrontation with Japan. Our ultimate goal is to beat its willpower and ambition to instigate strategic confrontation against China.

Though Beijing has encountered difficulties in the nascent stage of the ADIZ, Chinese authorities appear calm in the wake of all the provocations.

The Chinese nation is heading towards peace and prosperity with peace-loving people.

Turbulence over the Diaoyu Islands and the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone will in no way alter China's overall architecture.

Fierce reaction? The US, staunch supporter of Tokyo, is to refrain from confronting Beijing?

What they are saying doesn't make much sense, but I suppose it is a good match for the equally incomprehensible Abe administration.

BBC reports (11/29/2013) that China scrambled fighter jets to monitor Japanese fighter jets and the US surveillance planes entering, as far as Japan and the US know, their ADIZ over Senkaku Islands.

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