Will the Carrier be allowed into Hong Kong for a port visit or will they be banned like other nations navies from spending money in the local economies ?

Are Russian or Chinese military ships allowed into US/UK ports to spend money in the local economies?

And that is why there will be a shed-load of US Marines and their F-35Bs as part of the well-publicised package - Racedo right? YGTBSM!

Thank you for agreeing my point that RN require US Support to have the Chinese consider them as an issue.

Well how about that, a lone Royal Navy ship exercising FONOPS sets off the Chinese. Far from your prediction they’d ignore the lads.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-b...-idUSKCN1LM017

The Chinese are notoriously thin-skinned - they get bent out of shape about things that to us, seem totally trivial.

It doesn't change the fact that an small RN carrier group in the S China Sea would find it hard to survive if the balloon did go up

The question isn't survivability, it's whether the Chinese would give a damn. Clearly they do, this despite some posters thinking otherwise.

As to survivability, I'm no naval warfare expert and I suspect neither are you. What I do know is survival/effectiveness is tied to tactics and risk aversion. A CBG, be it the UK's or the USN isn't going to sail just offshore of China where it would incur a savage result. I suspect it would operate in the outer island regions where the full brunt of the Chinese military would have issues concentrating.

Of course they might just "welcome" them off Singapore and trail behind about 10 kms all the way round their deployment

Stuff like that happens during peacetime FONOPS.

I think you missed my point, that the decision to censor 'hate speech', however that may be defined, puts all speech within range of the government censor.
Once that is the norm, China will be well within her rights to request/require comments seen as harmful to China to be suppressed.
Of course, your point that all governments are just aching to apply similar strictures is quite correct. Freedom has no friends in Whitehall or in Congress or any government.

etudiant,

I'm currently working in Whitehall, and I'm afraid, or rather happy, that you couldn't be more wrong!

China could go batty over this one.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55541501

Australian advert of man eating bat sandwich investigated

An advert that shows a man eating a bat sandwich is being investigated by Australia's advertising watchdog.

The ad from outdoor equipment firm Boating Camping Fishing store (BCF) has been viewed more than 250,000 times on YouTube. In it, a man jokes that the pandemic was caused by someone eating a bat....

Relations between Australia and China deteriorated last year to their lowest point in decades, experts say. The advert could see tensions becoming further strained.....

But do the friends of freedom wield the leavers of power or are they the people who do the work ?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/05/europ...mil/index.html

Seems the Chinese are more interested in the RN CBG than you believe.

Sorry MODs, know you don’t like links, however it wouldn’t have been believed if I hadn’t added it. I’ll say 12 Hail Marys.

The Bible says that 'by their fruits you shall judge them'. By that standard there are very few friends of freedom in Whitehall afaik.
I'd be delighted to be corrected with specific examples.

West Coast, re China being worried about the RN CBG, there is probably a difference between "political annoyance" and "military fear". I suspect if you sailed a lone RN Minesweeper into the area there would be a protest! Over the last few decades, Beijing has quietly got on with weaving itself into many areas around the world such as Africa - completely ignored. Maybe they hoped to "get away with it" in a more open example of expansionism in the SCS.

I suspect they are more than a little annoyed that plan backfired and the spotlight has been turned on them rather than having much "military fear" - particularly of a small CBG as an entity. However, such a deployment demonstrates political resolve - and that's what China is annoyed about - it all adds to the US, Australia etc, in unison, shining a spotlight on China. I suspect they realize that, if the West took on China militarily, we'd be effectively looking at WW3.

"Cold War 2" anyone?

Both in my, very recent, experience.

Oh I disagree quite strongly, manifested by the life that I lead and the freedoms that I possess.

Go find your own specific examples.

Interesting.

Let's see from home port deployment to SCS.......................... from original notice to arrival minimum 35 days, yup lets be worried.