(http://www.whatarethe7continents.

com/)

Chinas ADIZ is a strategic move to control First

Island Chain
Posted on December 25, 2013 by StMA | 6 comments

On Nov. 23, 2013, China unilaterally announced an East China Sea Air Defense
Identification Zone (ADIZ) which includes the Japan-held Senkaku Islands,
which Chinese call Diaoyutai and over which China also claims ownership.
Since that declaration, Japan and South Korea have refused to accept Chinas ADIZ,
while the Obama administration has sent mixed signals at first seemingly challenging
the ADIZ by flying two unarmed B-52 bombers over the East China Sea (and the
disputed Senkaku islands), then seemingly accepting the ADIZ so long as China not
require all aircraft, commercial and military, to check with Beijing before flying through
the ADIZ.
It turns out that Chinas ADIZ isnt solely motivated by Beijings irredentist
claim over the Senkakus, but reaches beyond those disputed islets to include
none other than the First Island Chain.
What is the First Island Chain? From Maria Hsia Chang, Return of the Dragon: Chinas
Wounded Nationalism (Westview, 2001), p. 220:
The PRC [People's Republic of China] now conceives oceans to be its second national
territory (dier guotu). Chinas second national territory includes 12 territorial seas
, 24 maritime adjacent zones, 200 maritime exclusive economic zones and
continental shelves totaling more than 3 million square kilometers or one-third of
Chinas total land mass.

Defense of its maritime national territory requires Beijing to shift its defense strategy
from one of coastal defense to offshore defense. National Defense maintains
that since the frontline of maritime national defense lies beyond Chinas territorial
waters there will be times when Chinas defense of its seas may require doing
battle in farther maritime regions including international waters and seabeds.
Chinas perimeter of offshore defense is conceived to include two island
chains. The first chain stretches from the Aleutians to the Kurils, the Japanese
archipelago, the Ryukyus, Taiwan, the Philippine archipelago, and the Greater
Sunda Islands. The second island chain comprises the Bonins, the Marianas, Guam
[a U.S. territory], and the Palau archipelago.

First and Second

Island Chains (click map to enlarge)
Below is an excerpt from a commentary by Li Xuejiang () in the Chineselanguage Peoples Network (Renmin wang ) of Dec. 3, 2013, titled Why Chinas
ADIZ is like a fishbone stuck in the throats of Japan and the U.S.:
Chinas announcement of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) caused an uproar in
Japan, the United States, Australia, Canada and other Western countries. Japan and the
U.S. even sent military planes as an act of provocation. Their media also rallied together
to attack China. Some people laughed at China, saying that the ADIZ is a disgrace,

useless, a paper tiger. But in truth, their reaction proves that Chinas ADIZ is like a
fishbone thats stuck in the throats of Japan and the U.S.
One of the accusations against China is that Chinas military modernization is
disrupting the balance of power in the region. The United States, therefore, should
return to Asia to restore the balance of power in the Asia-Pacific. Some U.S. allies in
Southeast Asia also expect the United States to counterbalance China. It should be
noted, however, that the Asia-Pacific has never had a military balance to restore. Not
only has the United States never left Asia, it has had military dominance in East Asia.
In recent years Chinas military modernization has been more in the interest of defense
an interest that is necessary and legitimate in order to rectify the imbalance of
power so as to achieve a rebalance. This is what worries the United States and Japan.
But that should not deter China China cannot stop cultivating crops because of a
fear of locusts.
Chinas establishment of the ADIZ is not only a matter of the sovereignty of our core
national interests and of economic importance; it also has great strategic significance.
The United States not only has never accused Japan for its ADIZ, but strongly supports
it. Why do these two countries cooperate so seamlessly? Their purpose is, through
Japans ADIZ, to achieve a blockage of Chinas sea and air passages in the first island
chain.
Japans attempt in so doing is not just unacceptable, China must break through the
blockage. Ironically, the United States and Japan have shown us how to break that
blockage. Now that American and Japanese military airplanes have trespassed into
Chinas ADIZ without notice, China can also do so vis-a-vis Japans ADIZ and without
notification. In effect, the U.S.-Japans first island chain has become a useless paper
tiger.