China has built a pier for warships at a site it is developing as a military base to the west of the Senkaku Islands, sources said Friday.
The facility is on the main island in the Nanji chain off the port city of Wenzhou. It may be aimed at addressing contingencies with Japan and the United States, which have both criticized Beijing's growing assertiveness in the waters, the sources said.
The island chain is about 100 km closer to the Japan-administered Senkakus than Okinawa and its many U.S. military bases.