China reasserts its claims in regional disputes, pushes rivals’ limits

China's aggressive tactics in disputed territories aim to weaken rivals and expand control, risking regional conflict, analysts warn.

China’s campaign of confrontation, from remote reefs in Southeast Asia to Taiwan and far-flung Japanese islands, is designed to wear down regional rivals competing with it for contested territories, analysts say.

Beijing in recent years has asserted its claims in the long-running disputes far more boldly as its military strength has grown.

The escalating actions -- over islands in the East China Sea claimed by Japan, the self-ruled territory of Taiwan and the South China Sea -- have also come as Beijing’s rivals have drawn closer to the United States.

“(China) believes its strong-arm tactics are paying dividends,” Duan Dang, a Vietnam-based maritime security analyst, told AFP.

China has in recent months deployed military and coast guard vessels in a bid to eject the Philippines from a trio of strategically important reefs and islands in the South China Sea.

“The number of fronts where an accident could spiral suddenly is very real,” Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told AFP.

The latest flashpoint is Sabina Shoal, just 140 kilometres (86 miles) west of the Philippine island of Palawan and roughly 1,200 kilometres from China’s nearest major landmass, the island of Hainan.