Authored by via The Epoch Times,
China has imposed a 40-day offshore airspace restriction larger than Taiwan without explanation, signaling a potential shift toward sustained military readiness near Japan and U.S. allies.
China filed Notices to Air Missions (NOTAMs) reserving offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea fromMarch 27 to May 6, a 40-day window, without announcing any military exercises or offering a public explanation. The reserved zones cover an area larger than Taiwan’s main island, spanning from the Yellow Sea facing South Korea to the East China Sea facing Japan, including airspace north and south of Shanghai.
The restrictions carry no vertical ceiling, designated SFC-UNL, meaning surface to unlimited altitude.Civil aviation remains unaffected. Commercial flights are still permitted to pass through these areas, but must coordinate carefully with Chinese air traffic control authorities.
NOTAMs of this type have previously been used to signal Chinese military exercises, which typically last a few days. China has issued comparable restrictions along the same coastline at least four times in the past 18 months, but those lasted only three days and were openly linked to announced exercises, missile launches, or live-fire training events.
This time, Beijing provided no warning, no declared exercise, and no explanation.China’s Ministry of Defense and civil aviation authorities issued no statements and did not respond to requests for comment.
The November and December 2024 precedent is directly relevant. In November 2024, Shanghai air traffic control issued a NOTAM restricting seven large sections of airspace off China’s coast for periods spanning three days. Those zones overlapped with airspace subsequently used during large-scale military exercises in December 2024.
China provided no reason for the November restrictions, and they passed relatively unnoticed by the international media. Analysts assessed that they may have served as a rehearsal for the more significant airspace reservations that accompanied the December exercises.
Ray Powell, director of Stanford University’s SeaLight project, which tracks Chinese maritime activity, told The Wall Street Journal that the combination of SFC-UNL designation and a 40-day duration with no announced exercise suggests“a sustained operational readiness posture—and one that China apparently doesn’t feel the need to explain.”
Christopher Sharman, director of the U.S. Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute, said the zones could provide China an opportunity to practice air combat maneuvers relevant to a Taiwan contingency.
Source: ZeroHedge News
