China's coastguard patrolled Japan administered islands in the East China Sea almost daily last summer, the country said. It was to ensure its sovereignty over the remote, rocky island and deter Taiwan from taking a step toward independence.

Prime Minister Sanae Takayichi had said that Japan would intervene if China attacked Taiwan.

China has always claimed that Taiwan is its territory, despite the fact that it is democratically governed. It also claims to have never given up using force in order to "reunify?" with the island. Taiwan's government denies China's claim to sovereignty and claims that only the people of Taiwan can determine their fate.

Zhang Jianming, the coast guard chief in China, told reporters at a press conference on maritime law enforcement that China's coastguard patrolled Senkaku/Diaoyu islands for 357 of those days last year. Zhang Jianming said that in the last five years, they have organised 134 patrols, deployed 550,000 vessels and 6,000 planes around the islands.

Reports in May indicated that Beijing was reportedly increasing coast guard and navy activity in waters, including the East China Sea in an effort to consolidate dominance in the area.

Senkaku/Diaoyu are part of the strategic first chain of islands stretching from Japan to Taiwan and the Philippines. The U.S.-allied islands control the string of islands and contain China's expanding naval power.

In 2010, Japan's coastguard detained the captain of a Chinese boat that had collided near islands with Japanese vessels, causing a diplomatic crisis.

In 2012, tensions re-emerged when the Japanese government announced that it had purchased some of the disputed islands from their private Japanese owners. China responded by sending patrol ships.

Last month, China claimed to have expelled a "illegal" Japanese vessel from waters surrounding the islands. Japan, on the other hand, said that it had intercepted two Chinese coastguard ships approaching the vessel and had expelled them.

Reports state that Tokyo has encouraged fishermen to avoid the islands to prevent further escalation of tensions. Japan declined to make any comment. (Reporting and editing by Colleen Waye, Shri Navaratnam, and William Mallard).

(source: Reuters)