China’s gradual expansion in East China Sea poses challenge for Japan
In the South China Sea, China has backed the Philippines away from several contested reefs and shoals by sending waves of increasingly powerful vessels to the area. Several Japanese officials and security experts say China is now duplicating that strategy in the East China Sea, but with more intensity because of the frequent use of aircraft. China is trying to “unilaterally alter the status quo by coercive measures,” Fumio Kishida, Japan’s foreign minister, said in a news conference Friday.