Taipei, March 31 (CNA) Chances are low that China will declare an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the contested South China Sea in the near term, a Taiwanese official said Thursday, noting that Beijing is still trying to build up its military capabilities in the region.
Noting China's recent deployment of an advanced surface-to-air missile system to Woody Island (永興島), part of the Paracel Islands, National Security Bureau deputy head Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) said Beijing is still trying to build up its military capabilities there and it does not have the ability to identify aircraft passing through the region to establish an ADIZ.
It thus seems unlikely that China will declare a South China Sea air defense identification zone in the near future, Chou told a hearing in the Legislature's Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
He was responding to questions by a lawmaker about foreign media reports citing U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work as saying that the United States has told China it will not recognize an exclusion zone in the South China Sea and would view such a move as "destabilizing."
During Thursday's hearing, Defense Minister Kao Kuang-chi (高廣圻) also said that his ministry would express its "solemn stance" should China move to declare an ADIZ over the South China Sea region.
But he stressed that so far it is just purely "speculation."
An ADIZ is airspace over land or water in which the identification, location, and control of aircraft is performed by a country in the interest of its national security.
Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei claim all or part of the islands and reefs in the South China Sea, which are thought to be rich in oil and natural gas reserves.
(By Tang Pei-chun and Elaine Hou)
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