By WENDELL MINNICK
TAIPEI — China’s air defense identification zone in the East China Sea reaches beyond the military challenge it poses to the US and allies in the region, with insidious implications on continued US diplomatic, economic and political power in the Asia-Pacific, according to US experts on Chinese military strategy.
In fact, it’s all part of China’s attempts to overturn the existing order and replace it with its own interpretation of international rules and norms, they said.
The announcement Nov. 23 has put the US on notice that China cares not what the US thinks or wants in the region. It has disrupted US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to the region to discuss economics and trade. China’s zone has also shaken the confidence of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan on US security guarantees and led to fears the US has lost the ability to influence China permanently.
Sources indicate China appears emboldened by decades of economic, military and political growth to push the envelope on a weakened US, fraught with defense budget cuts, congressional division and hobbled by colossal debt. Would China have created the zone a decade ago when the US was at the height of its military, economic and diplomatic power? China is not attempting to join the international order created by the US after World War II but is instead an opportunist ready to profit from what it perceives as a decline of US power in the region, experts said.
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