Here are the crucial differences...
Defying China, U.S. bombers and Japanese planes fly through new air zone| Reuters
"The new Chinese rules mean aircraft have to report flight plans to China, maintain radio contact and reply promptly to identification inquiries and bear clear markings of their nationality and registration.
Other countries including the United States, Japan and South Korea have similar zones but only require aircraft to file flight plans and identify themselves
if those planes intend to pass through national airspace."
Spin all you want. The only thing it will do is make you dizzy.
except in practice, all aircraft regardless of whether or not they intend to pass US national airspace, are asked to identify themselves, give flight plans, etc etc.
of course no military would do this, the Russians, when they fly into the US ADIZ, is not going to give the US their plans or respond to identification demands. according to the formal rules the US should be leaving those Russian planes alone, as they do not intend to enter actual US national airspace, and yet in practice they are tailed by american fighters if they stay more than a few minutes or venture too far into the zone
now on topic of the US flight itself.
This particular flight is nothing out of the ordinary, the media(and certain ppl) are spinning this as though the US has somehow called china's bluff, and/or that the PLA has somehow backed down.
they have not, and ill explain why.
ADIZ does not prevent other people from flying into the airspace(russia enters the US ADIZ all the time, and chinese planes enter japan's ADIZ all the time as well), therefore there was no bluff. ALL that it means is that if you do enter without giving flight plan, ID etc. you will be watched and there will be a response. what that response is, is completely depended on the situation. for instance, the Russian bombers are often tailed by american fighters, in this particular case the american bombers were only monitored, as they only overflew the outer parts of the ADIZ and the PLA has identified them, they determined that monitoring was all that was necessary.
China says monitored U.S. bombers' flight through airspace zone| Reuters
japan can enter the airspace too, anyone can, theres no rules against this, but like the Americans, the chinese will take action you if you ventured too far in or stayed too long.
furthermore i believe(this part is purely my opinion, feel free to disagree), that the US preempted japan into a first flight into the zone, for a good reason. Americans flying around is one thing, the Japanese doing so would be another thing. a Japanese overflight would carry with it much more "baggage"(political and domestic). it would force the PLA to act even if it was not strictly necessary, by getting the initial "shock" out of the way(everything has a first and the first is the most news worthy), any subsequent Japanese flights would have much less "baggage" and without the "baggage" the chance of a confrontation leading to war lessens. and americans gain, by appearing to stand with japan and strengthening its alliance, china is okay with it because this is in fact completely normal, japan gains by not having to make the move itself and it appears to have full american backing.
As i have stated before, china was leaving japan in a tough position, even though japan and the US calls the chinese ADIZ disruptive and having no effect, the fact is, the ADIZ is completely normal, US and japan have unilaterally set their own as have many countries.
japan has promised to down any chinese drones over disputed airspace, so what happens if theres a drone over diaoyu islands and japan send a pair of f-15s to down them, but they have to enter the chinese ADIZ and therefore they will be tailed by chinese fighters( the islands are closer to chinese airbases than japanese ones). do they fire the first shot in a tense game of chicken and thereby allowing the Chinese fighters to retaliate because the japanese fired first? and Abe is forced to send the planes because he has to, due to all his rhetoric. with the US flight, he now doesnt have to act thereby preventing either a massive loss of face.credibility for japan/Abe if they didnt go try the Chinese zone, or, if he did act, a possible shooting war.
