The Pentagon has confirmed that two US military aircraft defied Beijing by flying over disputed islands in the East China Sea.<br /><br />In a bitter territorial row, China uses the name Diaoyu for the islands. Rival claimant Japan calls them the Senkaku islands.<br /><br />Tension rose at the weekend when China decreed a new air defence zone covering the islands and warned of “emergency measures” unless aircraft identified themselves.<br /><br />“We have conducted operations in the area of the Senkakus. We have continued to follow our normal procedures, which include<br />not filing flight plans, not radioing ahead and not registering our frequencies,” said Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren.<br /><br />He said the planes were on a regular exercise and that there was no Chinese response.
