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PacNet #87 – Chinese Announcement of the Air Defense Identification Zone – What Follows?

China last month announced it had established an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea that broadly overlaps with Japan’s ADIZ and includes the territorial airspace over the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands, to which China has claimed sovereignty. The Chinese ADIZ also overlaps South Korea’s ADIZ over the ROK-controlled Ieodo (called Suyan by China) Reef, to which China also has a claim. The United States, Japan, and South Korea all rejected the Chinese ADIZ. On Nov. 25, two B-52 bombers left Guam and flew through the China-declared ADIZ in defiance of the Chinese demand for a prior notification. Now what follows?