U.S. Warns China Over East China Sea Maritime Grab -- PRC air defense zone risks conflict over disputed islands -- By Bill Gertz, The Washington Free Beacon

The Pentagon invoked a U.S. defense treaty with Japan and warned China on Saturday that its declaration of an air defense zone over the East China Sea is increasing the danger of military conflict.

Both Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel issued statements late Saturday expressing “deep concern” over China’s creation of the air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, that extends over Japan’s Senkaku Islands, which China claims as its territory.

“We view this development as a destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region,” Hagel said. “This unilateral action increases the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations.”

Hagel then reaffirmed the U.S. military commitment to the 1952 U.S.-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty.

“The United States reaffirms its longstanding policy that Article V of the U.S. Japan Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the Senkaku Islands,” Hagel said.

A reference to the defense treaty is the clearest sign that the Pentagon fears China will use the creation of a new air defense zone to block U.S. and Japanese aircraft or ships from passing through the zone that includes large areas of international waters.

Such actions could set off the use of force and a military confrontation.

A Chinese map of the new defense zone shows that it overlaps Japan’s defense zone over the Senkakus.

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