Japanese Airline Passengers Should Be Anxious Over China's Air Defense Zone

Above, looking toward China from Kyushu.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

China's declaration of an expanded "air defense zone" has stirred up anxieties among civilian airline customers.

According to an article in BusinessMirror.com:

TOKYO—Although she is a seasoned traveler who frequently flies between Tokyo and Hong Kong, Kazuyo Ito confessed to some preflight anxiety as she checked in on Thursday for Japan Airlines Flight 29. 

“It is a little scary,” said the 59-year-old homemaker when asked about China’s threat to stop aircraft that refuse to identify themselves when flying over a large swath of the East China Sea. 

The situation in effect puts airline passengers at the front lines of the dispute over China’s declaration of an air-defense identification zone over islands Japan administers. 

“They wouldn’t do something to a commercial airline,” Ito said uncertainly before turning to her 29-year-old daughter, Kaori, who piped in, with more confidence, “I don’t think it will affect regular passengers like us.”

Oh, no? Just tell that to the passengers of KAL007. That was a Korean Airlines Boeing 747 that was shot down by the Soviets back in the 1980s for straying over Soviet airspace.

The Chinese government is still communist, just like the communists who shot down KAL007.

Japanese airline passengers have every right and reason to be anxious.

To read more, go here.