US Vice President Joe Biden will seek a delicate balance between calming military tensions with China and backing ally Japan against Beijing on a trip to Asia this week that is being overshadowed by a territorial row in the East China Sea.
Japan reiterated yesterday that Tokyo and Washington had both rejected Beijing’s move to set up an air defence zone that includes islands at the heart of a bitter Sino-Japanese feud – despite the fact that three US airlines, acting on government advice, are notifying China of plans to transit the zone.
Washington said over the weekend this did not mean US acceptance of the zone, and last week sent two B-52 bombers into the area without informing China.
Japan, US take different paths on commercial airlines
“The US government has made it clear that it is deeply concerned about China’s establishment of the air defence identification zone, and that it will not accept China’s demands regarding operations in the zone,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.
Japan’s two biggest airlines are following a request from their government not to submit flight plans in advance, which China has demanded from all aircraft since it announced the creation of the zone last month.
South Korean authorities have also advised the country’s airlines not to submit flight plans to China for flying through the zone, which overlaps with a submerged rock claimed by Beijing and Seoul.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China appreciated the US urging its airlines to notify China of flight plans, but chastised Japan for “deliberately politicising” the issue.
Sino-Japanese ties, often fraught due to regional rivalry, mutual mistrust and bitter Chinese memories of Japan’s wartime occupation, have become increasingly acrimonious because of a quarrel over tiny islands claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing.
In Tokyo today, Biden will likely assure Japan that a military alliance with the US dating back to the 1950s remains valid as the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wrangles with China over the islands.
Yet, he will also try to calm tensions between the US and key trade partner China over the same territorial dispute when he goes to Beijing later in the week.
“It’s especially important ... that we continue to amplify our messages that we are and always will be there for our allies, and that there is a way for two major powers in the US and China to build a different kind of relationship for the 21st century,” a senior official said.
Washington takes no position on the sovereignty of the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. However, it recognises Tokyo’s administrative control and says the US-Japan security pact applies to them, a stance that could drag the US into a military conflict it would prefer to avoid.
It is unclear whether Biden will ask for Chinese help in pressuring North Korea to release US war veteran Merrill Newman, 85, whom it arrested last month.