From ADIZ to UDIZ (but NIMBY-do shall never surrender)

Shinzo Abe's sabre-rattling tactics have paid beyond his wildest expectations: he needed China to play its imperialist tune a bit louder to justify his sick return to Imperial Japan militarism, and Beijing kindly obliged. Abe probably helped his fellow hardliners from the Middle Kingdom (who'd been champing at the bit for months) make the best of the recent plenum, and get the nod for pushing a few more stones on the East Asian go board.

China first brought the 'battleships' game from the sea to the air level by redrawing its ADIZ - Air Defense Identification Zone over disputed territories, triggering outrage from Korea and Japan (see "One Flew Over the Senkaku's Nest - Nationalist maps of Asia"), and later opened an underwater front by claiming ownership of thousands of shipwrecks across the region:

After the skies, China brings East Asia "Battleships" game to yet another level: underwater ("UDIZ"?): "China Takes Territorial Disputes to Shipwrecks in South China Sea" (WSJ 20131202)
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/407379744577957888 (20131202)

Nothing new under the sun: archaeologist have already been drafted before (most notably for the infamous "Northeast Project"), and if you wonder about underwater or shipwreck disputes, remember Ieodo, or that ship deliberately stuck in 1999 to the Second Thomas Shoal reef by the Philippines. That's around the very disputed Spratly Islands, a surrealistic space claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, and China, where a nation once lost an island while its lonely guard went to play a basketball game with a fellow Robinson*.

As we go to virtual press, Korea has yet to decide the final cut for its new ADIZ. For Winter-Spring 2013-2014, fashionistas expect longer sleeves, ideal to cover Ieodo during harsh seasons:

As Luis Mariano would sing, in "La Belle de Cadiz": "le label de KADIZ a les Ieodo velours, le label de KADIZ vous invite a l'amour" (aie aie aie)

Meanwhile, I am still keeping an eye on my much coveted rocks of Nimby-do, claimed as "Nukeyoushima" by Japan and "Zatsmain Dao" by China:

"I hereby declare a 3-mile ADIZ around these rocks, and won't hesitate to intercept any Tomcat entering our garden"
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/406199988419457024 (20131129)

BREAKING: my "Nimby-do" Islets are now claimed by Japan (as "Nukeyoushima") and China (as "Zatsmain Dao")
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/406257017292984320 (20131129)

And meanwhile, rumor has it all the seas in the region could be soon renamed Yellow Dust Desert.

Seoul Village 2013
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* Speaking of Mrs Robinson... "are you going to Scarborough Shoal?" (...) "tell her to find me an acre of land" (...) "Then she'll be a true love of mine" fields.