http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=43781&icid=a&d_str=20131129
Saber rattling in state media over foreign intruders in air defense zone (11-29 12:36)
China's state media called for “timely countermeasures without hesitation'' if Japan violates the air defense zone, after Beijing sent fighter jets to patrol the area. Japan and South Korea both said Thursday they disregarded the air defense identification zone that Beijing declared last weekend. Earlier US B-52 bombers also entered the area, AFP reports.
Beijing is facing mounting internal pressure to assert itself. The Global Times newspaper, which often takes a nationalistic tone, said in an editorial today: “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.''
The paper, said: “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. We are willing to engage in a protracted confrontation with Japan.''
But it shied away from threatening Washington, which sent giant Stratofortress bombers into the zone, issuing an mistakable message.
“If the US does not go too far, we will not target it in safeguarding our air defense zone,'' the paper said, adding that Australia could be “ignored'' and that South Korea “understands'' as it has tensions of its own with Japan.
The media rhetoric came after Chinese planes conducted air patrols Thursday as “a defensive measure and in line with international common practices'', Xinhua quoted People's Liberation Army Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke as saying. Defense ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said Thursday that Japan established its ADIZ in 1969, so Tokyo had “no right to make irresponsible remarks'' about China's.
“If there are to be demands for a withdrawal, then we invite the Japanese side to first withdraw its air defense identification zone, and China may reconsider after 44 years,'' he said.