Challenge & Reply.

This is coolbert:

The gauntlet having been thrown, the reply having been made.

Thanks to the tip from Jungle Trader.

A testing of resolve reminiscent of confrontations from the era of the Cold War. I am thinking of the Berlin Air Corridor and Quemoy and Matsu.

This is the type of thing that has not occurred in fifty to sixty years now!

The disputed islands of Senkaku/Daioyu the sovereignty of which now contested, China and Japan at loggerheads, with American intervention on the side of Japan now a done deal.

The airspace over the islands declared part of the Chinese air defense zone, that American response a show of resolve.

1. "Pentagon Prepared to Defend US Planes in China Defense Zone"

"PENTAGON — A Pentagon spokesman says the United States will not comply with China's new air defense zone in the East China Sea and is prepared to defend its aircraft that enter the region."

2. "US: 2 aircraft over China’s new airspace were on long-planned training"

Those American "intruders" reported to be B-52 bombers. The most dangerous beast of them all!
 
"WASHINGTON — Two U.S. military aircraft flew unannounced near a chain of islands claimed by both Japan and China, and through a newly established air defense zone China claims it controls."

Little itty-bitty uninhabited and uninhabitable [no ground water] chunks of rock out in the middle of the ocean! It is over such matters that wars are fought!

See previous blog entries regarding the Senkaku/Daioyu dispute:

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/09/posturing.html

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/09/combat.html

coolbert.