KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia will lodge a diplomatic protest against an alleged incursion by a Chinese Coast Guard ship into its waters off Borneo island in the disputed South China Sea, a top naval official said Tuesday amid a continuing standoff with the vessel.

Navy Chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar said that since late 2014, intrusions by Chinese ships into Malaysian waters have been a daily affair with Kuala Lumpur protesting to Beijing each time.

Abdul Aziz told AFP the Chinese vessel involved in the latest incident remained in Malaysian waters.

“We are maintaining our presence there. We are shadowing the vessel continuously. It is a case where they want to maintain their presence there but at the same time we are there to make sure and tell them that this is our waters,” he said.

“We have been submitting (diplomatic protests). Every time we detect them… every time we sight them we challenge them (to indicate) that they are in our waters. At the same time we lodge a diplomatic protest,” he added.

The latest incident is near the Luconia Shoals, an area of the South China Sea just outside the Spratlys, a reputedly oil-rich island chain claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Abdul Aziz said the Chinese incursion had taken place very close to the Malaysian coast.

Luconia Shoals lies just 65 nautical miles (120 kilometers) north west of the oil-rich town of Miri in eastern Sarawak state.