Beijing's setting up an air defense identification zone over a section of the East China Sea violates a basic rule under international law and is a "very dangerous" move that could lead to "an unexpected event," a high-ranking Japanese official warned Monday in Tokyo.
Specifically, Beijing's ADIZ declaration "unfairly violates the freedom of flight in airspace over the high seas," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters during a daily news briefing regarding the continuing war of words between Beijing and Tokyo.
China's declared ADIZ overlaps that of Japan's over the Senkaku Islands, which are controlled by Japan but claimed by China.