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Old 30th Jul 2021, 16:00
  #1024 (permalink)  
Lyneham Lad
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
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Yet more rhetoric (or should that sabre-rattling?) from Beijing.
Britain ‘asking for a beating’ over warship challenge in South China Sea, warns Beijing. (in The Times this afternoon).

Britain would be a “bitch . . . asking for a beating” if its aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth challenged China’s territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea, state media have declared.

The British flagship has arrived at the South China Sea, with plans to carry out legal freedom of navigation operations in international waters alongside US ships, as the UK bolsters its presence in East Asia to support regional allies in the face of China’s militarisation of the area and claims on territory.

Hu Xijin, the influential editor-in-chief of the state-run Global Times, said that any incursion into Chinese-claimed waters would be “made the example of China’s determination to safeguard state sovereignty”.

“To say it precisely, if the UK wants to play the role to coerce China in the South China Sea, then it is being a bitch. If it has any substantial move, it is asking for a beating,” Hu said.

“US ships have repeatedly entered the 12-nautical-mile limit of Chinese islets in the South China Sea and China has exercised maximum restraint,” she said. “But it doesn’t mean we will tolerate such provocations for long, and it definitely doesn’t mean US allies can imitate Washington’s dangerous acts.”

A country can claim the water within 12 nautical miles from its coastlines as its territorial sea.

“We must say it bluntly to them, if their warships should behave recklessly in the South China Sea like the US military, they will be made the example of China’s determination to safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The South China Sea, through which $5 trillion of trade passes each year, has become a flashpoint of competing interests over the past decade. China claims almost all of it as its own territory, despite rivalling claims from at least six other governments. It has militarised the waters and set up administrative regions there.

The US military has routinely carried out freedom of navigation operations and conducted exercises there. Its allies have joined the US for naval drills in the South China Sea but none has flouted China’s territorial claims by sailing within 12 nautical miles of Beijing-controlled islands.


Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, told The Timeslast week that Britain had a “duty” to insist on freedom of navigation when HMS Queen Elizabeth and its fleet sailed through on their way to Japan.

“It’s no secret that China shadows and challenges ships transiting international waters on very legitimate routes,” he said. “We will respect China and we hope that China respects us . . . we will sail where international law allows.”

Wu Qian, a spokesman for the Chinese ministry of national defence, said yesterday that Beijing “firmly opposed some country deploying warships over long distance to provoke troubles”, adding that the military would “take all necessary measures to respond firmly and effectively”.

Wu Shicun, president of China’s National Institute for South China Sea Studies, also said that Beijing must stop the British aircraft carrier entering China-claimed sea territories.

“If it dares to enter 12 nautical miles of Nansha Islands [Spratly Islands] and trespasses our territorial sea of the Xisha Islands [Paracel Islands], China must take strong countermeasures to make it pay, hence forestalling other countries from following suit and making similar provocations,” he wrote.

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