China Air Zone Seen Step to Expanding Access to West Pacific
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China’s escalation in its challenge to Japan’s administration of islands near Taiwan reflects an effort to gain greater command of the air and seas in the western Pacific as it builds itself into a maritime power.
Establishing control over airspace covering uninhabited islands which China claims as its own would offer cover for warships heading east between Taiwan and Japan’s Okinawa Islands. The islands lie along one of two direct channels from China’s coast to the Pacific Ocean, to which the U.S. has unfettered approaches from its west coast as well as Alaska, Hawaii and other islands.