The new leader of Japan’s main opposition Liberal Democratic Party says that he will increase defense spending if his party takes power.

In a lecture he delivered in Aichi Prefecture Monday, Shinzo Abe said that Japan needs to firmly express its will to protect its islands by increasing budgets for defense and the Japan Coast Guard.

The remarks are seen as the expression of his strong determination to stand up against China over a group of islands in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.

Abe has been calling for strengthening of Japan’s defense and military power as a way to keep China and its growing military clout in check.