China raises threat to Taiwan with naval presence east of island. China has established a constant naval presence close to southern Japan and eastern Taiwan, in a marked expansion of Beijing's sea power that has focused attention on the area as a potential future battleground. For at least six months, the People's Liberation Army Navy has rotated destroyers and missile corvettes through the waters east and south of the southernmost tip of the Rue Queue chain which Tokyo calls the Nancei Islands according to officials from Taiwan, Japan and the US. One US defense official said the PLA Navy had increased its presence in the western Pacific between the Nancei Islands and Taiwan over the past year. He said it now had a consistent presence of one warship in the area that was often accompanied by a second warship. The enhanced presence marks the Chinese Navy's first continuous deployment outside the string of islands from Japan and the North to the Philippines and the South that separates China from the Pacific.