China is laying out plans for another air defense identification zone in the South China Sea, according to a report in the Asahi Shimbun.
A draft plan for the ADIZ has already been completed, sources told the Asahi Shumbun.
Chinese government sources told The Asahi Shimbun that working-level air force officials have already worked out a draft plan for the prospective ADIZ, which they say, at the very least, will include the airspace over the Paracel Islands, which China calls Xisha and are under its control. The air zone could also go on to cover the entire South China Sea.
The sources said the Air Force Command College, a cadre development and research institution in Beijing that helped draft the East China Sea ADIZ, is also playing a central role in hammering out the plans for the South China Sea ADIZ, a draft of which was submitted to high-level military officials in May 2013.
Two key criteria that were used in the South China Sea ADIZ draft plan were deciding which boundaries Beijing would set up as its territorial sea baselines, the lines along its coast from which it measures its territorial waters outward, and the effective monitoring range of Chinese military aircraft and radar, the sources added.
China implemented an ADIZ in November over the East China Sea without consulting the United States, drawing outrage from Japan. Military leaders in the United States did not react strongly to the decision.