China conducted large-scale air and sea exercises in the East China Sea on Thursday, state news agency Xinhua said, the third time in the last two months it has carried out such live-fire maritime drills.

The training involved more than 100 ships, dozens of aircraft, information warfare units as well the firing of close to 100 missiles, Xinhua said.

It did not specify where exactly the exercises took place.

China and Japan are involved in an increasingly bitter dispute over ownership of a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea, called the Senkaku by Tokyo and Diaoyu by Beijing.

China has in the last two months held similar exercises in the Yellow Sea, and also the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/08/27/uk-china-malaysia-defence-idUKKCN0QW12F20150827