Joe Biden, the US vice-president, yesterday sharply criticised China’s declaration of a new air defence zone over the East China Sea, but stopped short of joining Japanese leaders in demanding the zone be scrapped.
In Tokyo on an Asian tour that will take him to Beijing tomorrow, Mr Biden sought to reassure Japan, the US’s most important military ally in Asia, that it would defend the country against any overt aggression from an increasingly assertive China.
But even as he reiterated that the US was “deeply concerned” China’s declaration of a wide air defence identification zone (ADIZ) last month risked “accidents and miscalculations”, he did not back Japan’s call for it to be scrapped.
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