Overview
- China issued aviation notices reserving five zones along its northeast coast from March 27 to May 6, with no public explanation.
- The reserved areas stretch roughly 340 miles from the Yellow Sea to the East China Sea and are labeled SFC-UNL, which sets no altitude limit.
- Officials have not announced drills, and experts cited by the Wall Street Journal, AFP, and Stanford’s SeaLight say the move may support Taiwan-focused training or signal Japan.
- Flight-tracking data show commercial jets still transiting parts of the corridor, underscoring that NOTAMs chiefly bind civil aviation and that real-world limits look partial.
- Reports map two zones between China and South Korea and three between China and Japan, separated by a corridor into Shanghai that specialists describe as tailored for military use.