China's coast guard patrolled Japan-held islands almost daily last year as tensions flare

China's coast guard intensified patrols near Japan-held islands last year, escalating tensions amid ongoing territorial disputes.

China’s coast guard patrolled Japan-administered islands ‍in the East China Sea almost daily last year, it said on ​Friday, aiming to secure its sovereignty over the remote, rocky ‌outpost and to deter Taiwan from taking steps ​toward independence.

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The patrols near the tiny islands — known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China — could add to tensions as Beijing and Tokyo are embroiled in their biggest diplomatic dispute in more than a decade after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Japan might intervene if China attacked Taiwan.

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China claims democratically governed ​Taiwan as its territory and has never renounced use of ⁠force to “reunify” with the island. Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claim and says only the island’s people can decide their own fate.

China’s coast guard patrolled the ​Senkaku/Diaoyu for 357 days last year, ⁠coast guard head Zhang Jianming told a press briefing on maritime law enforcement. Over the past five years, it organised 134 patrols and deployed 550,000 vessels and 6,000 aircraft around the ‌islands, Mr. Zhang said.