On the weekend of November 23, Beijing announced the establishment of a new Air Defense Identification Zone. Covering a large swath of the East China Sea, the move was intended to assert China’s control over disputed islands in the region, and predictably antagonized Beijing’s relations with Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. The move also prompted escalated tensions with the United States, which sent an unannounced flight of B-52 bombers through the airspace on Monday.
Coming immediately before a lengthy visit to Beijing by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the fracas has raised tensions between China and the United States, while prompting questions over what could possibly come from Biden’s trip to China, where the American politician spent at least five hours in conversation with Xi Jinping and apparently did not ask China to nullify or retract its claim for air-sovereignty.
Joining Kaiser to talk about these issues and more are two excellent Beijing-based China watchers: Jane Perlez, Chief Diplomatic Correspondent for The New York Times, and Peter Ford, Bureau Chief of The Christian Science Monitor. We are delighted to have both of them on the show and hope you enjoy listening to their thoughts.