When Push Comes To Shove

"[Beijing would not hesitate to make an example of Britain] to execute one as a warning to a hundred."

"China is likely to escalate its attempts to expel the warships at any time. In the future, stopping such intrusive behaviour that violates China's territorial waters is a struggle China is destined to intensify."

"If the U.K. wants to play the role of coercing China in the South China Sea, then it is behaving badly. If it makes any substantial moves, it is looking for trouble."

"We seriously warn this group: they are obliged to remain restrained and obey the rules."

"Please follow the current international shipping lanes and stay at least 12 nautical miles away from the Chinese islands and reefs."

Global Times editorial

China has been building artificial islands in the South China Sea   Getty Images

 

"We must hold our nerve. China is now, after having ten years able to operate at will in the South China Sea, feeling the might of the international community questioning its false right over what's clearly international waters."

"This is the beginning of the ratcheting up [of] tensions with China as they see this as their backyard and are using this harsh language to intimidate."

Tobias Ellwood, chairman, British Defence Select Committee

The Chinese 'islands and reefs', of course, refer to the illegally-built-up areas of 'land' in a maritime region in dispute. China infamously claims the South China Sea as its very own bailiwick. Its neighbours feel otherwise. China has been claiming sovereignty over land (Himalayan) disputed between itself and India, over airspace where it warns other nations they may not fly in areas China identifies as its sole purview, and at sea where Vietnam and the Philippines and Japan also claim rights to disputed areas.

 

The US has sailed through the South China Sea   AFP

 

Areas that are designated legally as international, where any nation has the freedom to navigate the  oceans and sail where by global agreement the oceans are open to all, and which are now being claimed by China and coincidentally (in the Middle East) by Iran, two countries that seem to get on very well together. Britain has been put on notice that sending the HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier strike group into the South China Sea is horribly offensive to Beijing. 

London has been instructed to "remain restrained and obey the rules". These are Beijing's rules. Beijing has no use for international rule-of-law. Theirs however, have no international standing as legitimately-recognized barriers. But the threat by Beijing has been issued; Britain is duly warned. And any other nation's vessels which venture into what they believe to be international waters must take Beijing's warning into account, because quite simply, Beijing insists they must do so.

 

 

According to the Daily Telegraph, Britain's aircraft carrier entered the contested waters almost a week ago with its return route not yet confirmed, though it had no intention of sailing through the Taiwan Strait on its  maiden mission. The U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace set the stage for a confrontation when he stated the intention of the deployment was to sail on any route defined as legitimate under international law.

China's claim of sovereignty over the South China Sea offends a 2016 international court ruling that the sea did not belong to China. The world looked on as China illegally built military bases and airport runways on islands they constructed in the disputed waters. And with those actions Beijing has grown increasingly belligerent and combative, irascible over its declarations being contested as legally unrecognized. And U.K. Defence Secretary Wallace preferred not to reveal whether the fleet intended to breach China's declared '12-mile zone'.

The strike group is led by HMS Queen Elizabeth. Photograph: Ana Brigida/AP