China's navy will on Tuesday launch annual military exercises off its east coast, state media reported, amid tensions over maritime territorial disputes with its neighbors.
  
"According to our annual plan for exercises, the Chinese People's Liberation Army's navy will in the coming days hold exercise activities in the waters near the Zhoushan islands," the ministry said in a statement on Monday. The ministry provided no other details on the war games.
  
But the China Daily said the live fire naval exercises would start on Tuesday and last for six days. The Zhoushan islands lie in the East China Sea not far from the coastal city of Shanghai. The China Daily said the exercises would not be held in any waters also claimed by another country.
  
The exercises come after Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Saturday that Japan was considering buying a chain of islands at the centre of its bitter territorial dispute with China and Taiwan.