France will send ships to China sea ahead of Royal Navy drills

FRANCE is to deploy warships to the South China Sea to sail through waters claimed by China before the UK sends a strike group.

The move is contributing to a naval build-up in the volatile strategic waters as more countries assert their freedom of navigation to counter Beijing’s expansionism.

The French mission is to present Paris as an autonomous power in the Indo-Pacific region and its contested waters. After sending its nuclear attack submarine Émeraude through the South China Sea early last month, France is to deploy its amphibious assault ship, the Tonnerre, and the frigate Surcouf to sail twice through an area claimed by Beijing.

As part of its annual Jeanne d’Arc mission, it will also take part in largescale exercises with the navies of Indo-Pacific partner nations, India, Australia, Japan and the United States.

The UK will also conduct joint drills with Japan when it sends its new carrier strike group to the Indo-Pacific this year, in what has been described by Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, as the “most significant Royal Navy deployment in a generation”. The UK will team up with the US navy for its mission.

Military commanders are anticipating that the Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will come under cyberattack as it sails towards China on its maiden grand voyage. Experts have raised concerns that the Chinese could try to jam signals and spread fake information in countries where HMS Queen Elizabeth docks in East Asia.

Commander Tom Sharpe, retired, warned: “China will engage in disinformation operations during the deployment in an attempt to weaken resolve and undermine alliances.”

He said: “China will also certainly conduct cyberactivity against the group that will test the ship and her support networks.”

The £3.1 billion HMS Queen Elizabeth will set sail in May as the centrepiece of a carrier strike group, reaching East Asia by late summer. The group will include a detachment of US Marine F-35Bs and the US destroyer The Sullivans, and will sail into disputed SCS waters as part of “freedom of navigation” patrols.

Jo YC Hsu, of the Taipei Representative Office in London, said that Taiwan would welcome deployment of HMS Queen Elizabeth to the South China Sea. “China’s expansion in the South China Sea poses a common threat to the region,” she said.

This week Berlin also announced that a German frigate will set sail for Asia in August and, on its return journey, become the first German warship to cross the South China Sea since 2002.

China claims almost all the energyrich waters of the South China Sea, where it has established military outposts on artificial islands.

Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, described the “absolute intensity of the warship presence planned for this year” as unprecedented, but said that it was more like a set of “national roadshows to showcase their Indo-Pacific commitment” than a coordinated effort.