Biden To Visit Asia Amid Heightened Tensions

On December 2, Vice President Joe
Biden will head to Asia. The news of the visit comes amid rising
tensions between China and Japan regarding sovereignty over a group
of small uninhabited islands. The ongoing dispute over the islands,
referred to in China as the Diaoyu Islands and in Japan as the
Senkaku Islands, recently intensified when China announced the
introduction of an air defense zone that covers the islands.
According the
BBC, the Chinese government has said that any planes within the
zone “must obey its rules or face “emergency defensive
measures.”

Since the introduction of the zone two unarmed American B-52
bombers have flown over the disputed islands. The
Chinese defense ministry has said that the planes were
monitored.

Commercial Japanese planes
defied the rules relating to the newly introduced zone,
ignoring Chinese authorities while flying through it.

The BBC has a map outlining the extent of the new Chinese
defense zone, shown below (the Chinese Defense Ministry and
the EIA are credited):

Yes, the islands that are the cause of all the recent fuss are
so small they cannot be seen on the map. Put together, the islands
have an area of less than three square miles. 

More from Reason.com on China here.