China warns Britain not to ‘stir up trouble’

China has offered a warning to Britain after Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, announced that the Royal Navy would send a warship through the disputed South China Sea next month. Mr Williamson said HMS Sutherland, an anti-submarine frigate, would sail through the sea on its way home from Australia to assert freedom of navigation rights. Beijing claims nearly all of the strategic waters. The Chinese foreign ministry cautioned against “stirring up trouble”.

CHINA has warned against “stirring up trouble” in the South China Sea after the Government announced it was sending a warship through the disputed waters next month.

Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, said HMS Sutherland, an antisubmarine frigate, would sail through the sea on its way home from Australia to assert freedom of navigation rights.

“She’ll be sailing through the South China Sea and making it clear our Navy has a right to do that,” Mr Williamson told The Australian newspaper after a two-day visit to Sydney and Canberra.

China claims nearly all of the strategic waters, despite counter-claims from Taiwan and several south-east Asian nations including the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Observers say China is developing its military capabilities by fortifying and building infrastructure on what were previously reefs and partially submerged islets in the sea, where more than $5 trillion (£3.8 trillion) of trade passes every year.

Geng Shuang, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said the situation on the South China Sea was “improving with each day” and he urged “those outside the region” to respect efforts made by China and its neighbours to resolve differences. “Currently the South China Sea is calm and tranquil,” he added, in response to a question from The Telegraph on the British plans. “We hope other countries won’t begin stirring up trouble.”

Beijing has been enraged with previous “freedom of navigation” patrols which have been carried out by the US Navy, and has sent out warships to confront them.

The US patrols have sailed within 12 nautical miles – the distance internationally recognised as a territorial limit – of disputed territory or artificial islands built by China.

Mr Williamson would not say whether the frigate would sail within 12 nautical miles of the land formations. However, he added: “We absolutely support the US approach on this, we very much support what the US has been doing.”

Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Australian, New Zealand, Japanese and probably French navy ships had sailed through the waters, but most countries “remain silent about such operations”.

“They don’t necessarily call them freedom of navigation operations,” she told The Telegraph.

Ms Glaser said she doubted China would be enraged by these type of lowprofile “transit patrols”, however, Beijing sharply criticised the UK last summer when it first raised the prospect of a freedom of navigation patrol.

Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary, said he wanted to send the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers into the South China Sea, while Sir Michael Fallon, the former defence minister, said Britain would “exercise the right to navigate the South China Sea”.

Lu Kang, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said in response that countries involved with the territorial stand-off were “working together” to safeguard peace. “Yet we see other countries who insist on stirring up trouble while the situation is heading towards calm in the South China Sea,” Mr Lu told a regular briefing in Beijing.