The way the government has danced to the tune of China in its recent designation of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea is tantamount to a “tacit acknowledgement” that China has sovereignty over Taiwan’s territorial airspace, an academic said yesterday.

China declared the ADIZ with the intent to claim that the airspace over Taiwan falls within its jurisdiction, and the Taiwanese government’s docile response can be interpreted as an agreement to hand over sovereignty to China under international law, said Chris Huang (黃居正), an associate professor at the Institute of Law for Science and Technology at National Tsing Hua University.