When China created a controversial “air defence identification zone” last Saturday, it sparked alarm about the rising risk of Sino-Japanese conflict over the bitterly contested Senkaku Islands.

But while the focus has been on the Japanese-controlled chain – which Beijing claims and calls the Diaoyu – China also said in the same statement it “will establish other air defence identification zones at the right moment after necessary preparations are completed”, raising the spectre of tensions spreading across the region.

The Senkaku spat has attracted much attention over the past year because of the potential for war between Asia’s two biggest economies. But China is engaged in a number of equally contentious territorial disputes with southeast Asian nations – particularly the Philippines and Vietnam – over the resource-rich South China Sea.