Japan wants to know China's intentions in region

China is pushing hard to make territorial claims in the region and is posing an increasing threat to Japan and its neighbours, the Japanese government said Tuesday.

Beijing was taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to expand its influence and assume strategic superiority, the govenrment said.

Japan's defense minister Taro Kono said it was important to "understand exactly what China's intention is, in line with its capabilities, when attempts to change the current situation are being made in various places."

Kono said China had been unilaterally enforcing its power on the border between China and India, in the South China Sea, and in "multiple" other places.

He was addressing a news conference where he launched a White Paper setting out the government's defense priorities.

Kono's comments came shortly after the Trump administration rejected outright nearly all of Beijing's significant maritime claims in the South China Sea, a stance likely to deepen the rift between Beijing and Washington.

The White Paper accused China of using propaganda, including spreading disinformation, about the spread of the coronavirus.

The annual report said China had "relentlessly" pushed to change the status quo in the North Asian seas, including sending vessels into Japanese waters around Japan-controlled disputed East China Sea islands called Senkaku in Japanese.

Beijing also claims the islands and calls them the Diaoyu.