China has deployed some of its most sophisticated Navy vessels to the eastern coast of Malaysia. Wednesday’s report from the Xinhua news agency is thought to be a play by Beijing to reinforce territorial claims to part of the South China Sea. Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Hong Kong, said military exercises, beginning on Saturday, have “taken many Asian neighbours and military analysts by surprise”. The exercises included the landing of amphibious craft just off the James Shoal, 80 kilometres off the Malaysian coast. The James Shoal is China’s most southerly territorial claim. It is among several disputed parts of the South China Sea, including the Spratly Islands, that the People’s Republic says belong to Beijing.
