China has been strongly criticised for its sudden announcement of an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea. This comes just after the withering international criticism it faced for its early response to the Philippines’ disaster. The death toll from Typhoon Haiyan stands at over 5,000.

At first, China left its wallet at home: its initial offer of aid to the battered country was a stingy $100,000, but it’s now pledged a modest $1.6 million worth of relief materials. That still looks mean, with more than $10 million from Australia, $20 million from the US (which has sent an aircraft carrier and marines), $17 million from the European Union, $16 million from the UK, and $10 million from Japan, (with three ships and 1,000 personnel). New Zealand coughed up $1.7 million.

It’s not as if China hasn’t contributed to disaster response in the region before. Between 2002 and 2010, the PLA carried out 28 international humanitarian aid missions. That’s comparable to the Australian Defence Force, which undertook 16 such operations between 2003 and 2011. Chinese personnel numbers in these missions over the last decade are roughly similar to our own military deployments (PDF). Read more