Analysis: Enforcing rules in air zone will stretch China's air force and navy

By Greg Torode and Adam Rose HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - China's military could struggle to cope with the demands for intensified surveillance and interception if it tries to enforce the rules in its new air defense zone over islands at the heart of a territorial dispute with Japan. Regional military analysts and diplomats said China's network of air defense radars, surveillance planes and fighter jets would be stretched by extensive patrols across its Air Defense Identification Zone, roughly two-thirds the size of Britain. But some noted that even limited action could still spark alarm across a nervous region - and serve China's desire to pressure Japan. China published the coordinates of its zone in the East China Sea over the weekend and warned it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in the airspace.

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