China's ascent as a trading power and its push for control of disputed islands and seas in East Asia are confronting the region with a new challenge: how to cope with Chinese moves that make recognition of its sovereignty claims a condition for access to its huge market and strategic resources.

Japan, the United States and Europe have so far borne the brunt of Beijing's policy of taking trade reprisals against countries perceived to contest its assertion of jurisdiction over Tibet, Taiwan and an extended area of the East China Sea.

Alarm bells started ringing when Japan reported last month that China had blocked shipments of key minerals for political reasons, after Tokyo detained a Chinese trawler captain in a bitter dispute between Asia's two top economies over ownership of the Senkaku islands as well as valuable fisheries and seabed energy resources in the East China Sea.