Britain will sail an aircraft carrier taskforce through disputed international waters in the South China Sea in a direct challenge to Beijing, the Defence Secretary has revealed.
Ben Wallace confirmed that HMS Queen Elizabeth and her escort fleet will transit international waters claimed by China next month, saying Britain had a 'duty' to insist on freedom of navigation.
The Communist regime has alarmed neighbours in the region including Japan and the Philippines with illegal claims in international waters.
Mr Wallace also confirmed that the UK plans to deploy Royal Navy warships permanently to the region in a show of support for allies.
Speaking on a visit to Tokyo, Mr Wallace told the Times: 'It's no secret that China shadows and challenges ships transiting international waters on very legitimate routes.
'We will respect China and we hope that China respects us ... we will sail where international law allows.'
It comes after the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender was involved in a stand-off with Russia after sailing close to occupied Crimea in an international shipping lane.
Ben Wallace confirmed that HMS Queen Elizabeth and her escort fleet will transit international waters claimed by China next month, saying Britain had a had a 'duty' to insist on freedom of navigation.
Speaking on a visit to Tokyo, Mr Wallace told the Times: 'We will respect China and we hope that China respects us ... we will sail where international law allows.'
After passing through the South China Sea in August, the British fleet will partake in exercises in the Philippines Sea with Australia, France, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the US.
Mr Wallace declined to say whether the fleet would breach the 12 mile zone around military bases China has built on disputed rocks in the South China Sea.
US warships and aircraft have passed close to the bases in the past, provoking warnings from Chinese vessels and angry responses from Beijing.
Mr Wallace also told The Times the West must work to avoid a Cold War in the region at a time when the world was in an 'anxious' state, but that he felt conflict was still only a remote possibility.
'The world is a more anxious place, and as a result more on edge,' he said. 'There is definitely a danger that that anxiousness tips into more aggressive measures, but I think we are still some way off a military conflict in Asia.'
The British carrier, which is carrying F-35B stealth jets on its maiden voyage, will dock at Yokosuka, the home of Japan's fleet command and the USS Ronald Reagan, the only forward deployed US aircraft carrier.
Mr Wallace met Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga in Tokyo today to discuss the UK's military plans
Plans for the high-profile visit by the carrier strike group come as London deepens security ties with Tokyo, which has expressed growing alarm in recent months over China's territorial ambitions in the region, including Taiwan.
'Following on from the strike group's inaugural deployment, the United Kingdom will permanently assign two ships in the region from later this year,' Mr Wallace said in a joint announcement in Tokyo with his Japanese counterpart, Nobuo Kishi.
The British embassy in Tokyo did not immediately respond when asked which ports in the region the Royal Navy ships would operate from.
A close US ally, Japan hosts the biggest concentration of Americab military forces outside the United States, including ships, aircraft and thousands of marines.
The Queen Elizabeth is being escorted by two destroyers, two frigates, two support vessels and ships from the United States and the Netherlands.
It will come to Japan through the South China Sea, parts of which are claimed by China and South East Asian countries after stops in India, Singapore and South Korea.
In a further sign of Britain's growing regional engagement, Wallace, who traveled to Japan with a delegation of military commanders, said Britain would also eventually deploy a Littoral Response Group, a unit of marines trained to undertake missions including evacuations and anti-terrorism operations.
jtronic on July 20th, 2021 at 16:02 UTC »
Isn’t this how Tomorrow Never Dies started?
The_Novelty-Account on July 20th, 2021 at 15:41 UTC »
There's an interesting international legal reason that this constantly happens in the South China Sea. Basically, in order to prevent China from making a valid territorial claim over certain islands and constructs, or more accurately, to prevent the territorial and economic zone waters that come with those claims, the United States, the United Kingdom and other states that do not want China to have legal claim to the islands or at least the waters surrounding them under UNCLOS, must display that China does not have those legal rights.
China is attempting to declare a bunch of islands within the South China Sea to be its own territory, most people know this. The reason is the vast natural resource bed available as well as a geopolitically advantageous position both of which it will attain from the associated rights to the water it will recieve under UNCLOS if such claims are made out. In order to do so it has made its own islands and occupied them which does not actually give it any rights over the surrounding waters according to the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention but that it insists it has anyway.
On the territory side, according to the Island of Palmas Case (Netherlands v. United States) (1928), 2 RIAA 829, a state effectively occupies a territory when it is able to exert sovereignty over that territory, which in effect, actually leads to that sovereignty. Here is the major except from the case from page 839 of volume II of the UN report of international arbitration awards from 1928.
Regardless of a territory claim and perhaps even more importantly, these claims alone lead China to claim territorial waters under UNCLOS. States obviously take issue with that.
What this leads to is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaKbZW0pqkM
Which happens at least every few weeks. China asserts its sovereignty, and Western Powers in calling it international waters and airspace dispute that sovereignty, and assert their freedom of navigation over these areas, which defeats the Chinese claim that they can restrict access to the waters. Every time a country successfully sails its ships through the area without China preventing that freedom of movement through international waters, its claim to the "islands" and control over the surrounding waters is weakened. So, when the US or UK or any other country attempts to sail its ships through the areas that China is claiming sovereignty to, it responds as if it actually has sovereignty over the area.
These ships will also zig-zag through the waters so as to be very clear about the fact that they are not simply excercising their ability to briefly travel through the waters to get to their destination under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, but rather do not see the waters as Chinese territorial waters. The operations are known in the United States as Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOP).
Really interesting example of international law!
Edit: The reason China will not just sink the ships is two-fold. First, it doesn't want to provoke an international war, and second, seeing as it does not actually have sovereingty over the islands (because as human-made constructs they're not legally islands for the most part), it can't do so legally. The latter reason is how FONOPs can defeat sovereignty claims even if their main goal is to keep waterways open.
autotldr on July 20th, 2021 at 15:00 UTC »
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 77%. (I'm a bot)
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