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

New recruits of the Chinese Navy fleet stand with their guns during the parade marking the end of their first training session in Qingdao, Shandong province, March 4, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer

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 defence zone over islands at the heart of a territorial dispute with Japan.

Regional military analysts and diplomats said China's network of air defence radars, surveillance planes and fighter jets would be stretched by extensive patrols across its Air Defence Identification Zone, roughly two-thirds the size of Britain.