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() — China gave a preview Wednesday of what could happen to Taiwan by sending 27 fighter jets to the island’s air defense identification zone, an airspace buffer zone commonly known as ADIZ, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. Taiwan.
Twenty-two of those planes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, an unprecedented number since the island began publishing information about China’s raids on its ADIZ about two years ago, a flight map provided by the ministry showed.
The incursions come as China launches military exercises around Taiwan to protest this week’s visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Chinese Defense Ministry published a map of six areas around the island where it plans to hold air, sea, and long-range live-fire exercises as part of what a spokesman described as a “lockdown.” Ships and aircraft have been warned to stay out of the areas during the drills.
The exercise areas announced by Beijing extend as far as Taiwan’s ADIZ and in some cases encroach on the island’s territorial airspace, an area recognized under international law that extends 12 nautical miles (22.2 kilometers) from the coast.
Analysts say it is an extremely provocative move.
Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain and former director of operations for the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, said China is going “much further than ever before” in bringing its military assets closer to the shores of Taiwan.
Beijing’s threats have sparked much discussion about what exactly constitutes Taiwan’s airspace and whether it is recognized under international law.
This is what you should know.
What is the airspace of a country?
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the territorial limits of a country extend 12 nautical miles (22.2 kilometers) from its coast.
The above area is considered the country’s territorial airspace, in accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation, which also stipulates that government or military aircraft may not fly over the territory of another country without permission.
China is a signatory to UNCLOS, signing it on December 10, 1982 and ratifying it in 1996. Taiwan is not.
If Taiwan is not an independent country, does it have its own airspace?
Taiwan’s disputed status makes this question difficult to answer definitively.
While Taiwan is a self-governing democracy, mainland China insists it has sovereignty over the island and fiercely opposes any suggestion that it could be considered an independent country.
Most countries in the world do not recognize Taiwan as an independent country, and maintain diplomatic relations with Beijing instead of Taipei.
However, Drew Thompson, a visiting senior fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and a former US Department of Defense official, said that most of the world treated Taiwan as if it were a independent country, and therefore, it should be considered that it has its own airspace.
“The reality is that Taiwan exists. Taiwan is self-governing. It is effectively independent of any other country. It elects its own government, collects its own taxes, defends its own borders. So, for all intents and purposes, Taiwan is a country,” Thompson said. .
“Under that principle, then we may decide that international law applies, in which case Taiwan’s airspace extends 12 miles beyond its baseline. Beyond the 12-mile limit there are international waters, international airspace “, he added.
Thompson said there was also a matter of precedent and that even China’s military seemed to tacitly acknowledge it.
Despite “the fact that the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) doesn’t recognize Taiwan, or China doesn’t recognize Taiwan, they have respected Taiwan’s airspace,” he said.
Chinese commercial aviation companies also respected Taiwan’s airspace, Thompson said, acknowledging a “convention that effectively treats Taiwan as independent under civil aviation guidelines.”
However, China maintains that since Taiwan is its sovereign territory, its military aircraft do not need permission from Taiwan or any other entity to fly in the island’s territorial airspace. In Beijing’s eyes, Taiwan’s airspace is essentially China’s airspace.
So could China fly its military planes over Taiwan?
“It would go against international law, but international law is flimsy and open to interpretation by each country that decides whether or not they want to follow it or enforce it,” Thompson said.
But what is “international law”? The International Court of Justice in The Hague says it assesses cases based on “international conventions,” such as treaties like UNCLOS; “international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law”, that is, what countries usually do in a given circumstance, and “the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations”.
The United Nations website says that international law is enforced “in many ways — by courts, tribunals, multilateral treaties — and by the Security Council, which can approve peacekeeping missions, impose sanctions or authorize the use of force when there is a threat to international peace and security, if it deems it necessary”.
But remember, the five permanent members of the Security Council, including China and the United States, have veto power, so they can block any attempt by the UN to enforce international law.
“It has seen China ignore the rules of international law left and right for decades, especially in the South China Sea,” Thompson said, referring to military installations China has built on several islands despite an international court ruling. it rejected their sovereignty claims in 2016.
What is the difference between airspace and an air defense identification zone?
Taiwan has often been in the headlines recently when Chinese fighter jets have entered its air defense identification zone.
On Tuesday, for example, Taiwan said 21 Chinese planes entered its ADIZ, and there have been almost daily incursions by PLA fighter jets over the past month.
However, these zones are not the same as territorial airspace. Rather, they are unilaterally declared buffer areas that extend beyond territorial airspace, set up specifically to give defensive forces time to react when foreign aircraft approach. Consequently, not all countries have an air defense identification zone.
The US Federal Aviation Administration defines zones as “a designated area of airspace over land or water within which a country requires the immediate and positive identification, location, and air traffic control of aircraft in the interest of the national security of the country”.
Mercedes Trent of the Federation of American Scientists wrote in a 2020 review that “it is customary for foreign aircraft entering such zones to identify themselves and seek prior authorization from the country that controls the zone before entering.”
If foreign aircraft enter an air defense identification zone without permission, the home jurisdiction will often mobilize fighter jets to warn off intruders. This has happened numerous times when Chinese fighter jets entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone in recent years.
How did Taiwan establish its air defense identification zone?
The island’s air defense identification zone was actually the brainchild of the United States, which established similar zones for Japan, South Korea and the Philippines to try to protect them from Chinese and Russian overflights, according to Trent of the Federation of Scientists. Americans.
Part of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone actually extends over mainland China, but Chinese flights are challenged by Taiwan only if they cross the median line, the midpoint between the island and the mainland over the Taiwan Strait.
Does China have an air defense identification zone?
Yes. It’s over the East China Sea and covers the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu island chain, which is controlled by Japan.
China’s air defense identification zone overlaps those of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. However, it does not cover the island of Taiwan itself, stopping just short of its northern tip.
