Britain’s carrier plan slammed
Spokesman: Sending navy vessels to South China Sea will stir up trouble
China slams Britain over its plan to send new aircraft carriers on freedom of navigation missions in the South China Sea to challenge Beijing’s territorial claims.
China’s foreign ministry has criticised plans by Britain to send its new aircraft carriers on freedom of navigation missions in the South China Sea to challenge Beijing’s expansive territorial claims in the strategic waterway.
Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters in response to a question on statements by British officials that “some countries” from outside the region “insist on stirring up trouble while the situation is trending towards calm in the South China Sea”.
“Regardless of what banner these countries or individuals fly under or what excuses they may peddle, their record of the same kind of sanctimonious interference in the affairs of other regions, leaving behind chaos and humanitarian disaster, prompts countries in this region to maintain a high degree of vigilance,” Lu said.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson confirmed following a high-level meeting in Sydney with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop that missions to the South China Sea would be near the top of deployment plans for the new carriers, the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.
“One of the first things we will do with the two new colossal aircraft carriers that we have just built is send them on a freedom of navigation operation to this area to vindicate our belief in the rules-based international system and in the freedom of navigation through those waterways, which are absolutely vital for world trade,” Johnson said.
British Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon later said exact plans for the deployments had not yet been finalised.
“But yes, you would expect to see these carriers in the India Pacific Ocean because it is in this part of the world we see increasing tension, increasing challenges,” Fallon said.
China has strongly objected to repeated freedom of navigation missions carried by the US Navy along with the presence of the navies of Japan, Australia and others in the waterway, through which an estimated US$5 trillion (RM21.3bil) in annual trade passes each year.
Meanwhile, an official Chinese magazine claimed President Xi Jinping had personally directed the expansion of China’s presence in the South China Sea through the con- struction of man-made islands and other measures, crediting him with building a “maritime Great Wall”.
Xi “personally led and directed a series of great struggles to expand strategic advantages and safeguard national interests”, the Study Times, published by the ruling Communist Party’s central training academy, said in an article published Friday.
The president’s policies, including the building of islands and administrative changes elevating the status of China’s claims in the disputed Paracel island group, have “altered the basic direction of the South China Sea strategic situation”. — AP