By Jin Kai
In intercepting US military aircraft, China is sending a clear signal about what behavior it will (and won’t) accept.
In one sense, the recent encounter between a Chinese and a U.S. military plane near Hainan Island is nothing special. The U.S. has been sending spy planes to China’s sea coast for electronic interception and surveillance missions for decades, and Washington even publicly claims that such patrols are lawful, appropriate, and necessary. This specific incident has nothing to do with newer initiatives like the “rebalance to Asia” and the construction of a “new type of great power relations.”
However, in another sense, the recent plane encounter is different. Although similar events have occurred fairly frequently, particularly since 2001, the recent airborne confrontation comes against a much more complicated regional background: the U.S. has returned to Asia, the Sino-Japan confrontation is going strong, and China has decisively announced a new air defense identification zone. Given this background, will China strategically adjust its behaviors with regard to the never-ending surveillance patrols by U.S. spy planes? Should China do so?
For China, the recent incident carries a simple but powerful lesson: rules cannot be separated from power. Though China is the world’s second biggest economy, and is still growing rapidly, it does not have the capability (and thus far, the intention) to conduct similar spy plane patrols near the west coast of the United States. Hence, the behaviors and attitudes of the U.S. seem to be teaching the Chinese about the connection between power and the rules: he who has the power makes the rules, for his own benefit. Some Chinese wonder how the U.S. would react if Chinese military planes patrolled near Hawaii or west coast of the United States. How would the “rules” apply then?
Read the full story at The Diplomat