China blasts Nato with British aircraft carrier ‘heading to South China Sea’

Name: Washington’s hardened position on Beijing’s claims in South China Sea heightens US-China tensions
Uploaded: 2021-01-01T13:26:09.000Z
Duration: 2 min 32 s
Description: Washington’s hardened position on Beijing’s claims in South China Sea heightens US-China tensions

HMS Queen Elizabeth’s first operational mission expected to include the disputed sea

Chinese defence ministry criticises ‘flexing muscles’ and Nato report that said China’s authoritarianism and territorial ambitions posed ‘acute challenges’

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Britain’s HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier is reported to be including the South China Sea in its first operational mission. Photo: AFP

Catherine Wong

Published: 9:26pm, 1 Jan 2021Updated: 12:10am, 2 Jan 2021

China said it would take necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty as it warned against the British navy dispatching warships to the disputed South China Sea.

The remarks were made in response to expectations that Britain’s newest aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, will be deployed to the Pacific region, including the contentious sea, for its first operational mission.

“The Chinese side believes that the South China Sea should not become a sea of great power rivalry dominated by weapons and warships,” defence ministry spokesman Tan Kefei said when asked about Britain’s plans during a monthly press conference in Beijing on Thursday.

Former British defence minister Gavin Williamson had said in February 2019 that HMS Queen Elizabeth’s first operational mission would include the South China Sea, “making a global Great Britain a reality”.

02:32

Washington’s hardened position on Beijing’s claims in South China Sea heightens US-China tensions

The aircraft carrier and its strike group are also expected to join forces with the American military and the Japanese Self-Defence Forces near Japan’s Ryukyu Islands “as soon as early next year”, according to Kyodo News.

The United States, which in July formally denied China’s “illegal claims” over most of the contested sea and has criticised it for militarising features there, has regularly sent warships through the region to challenge the claims, which were ruled by a 2016 international tribunal to have no legal basis.

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China blasts Nato with British aircraft carrier ‘heading to South China Sea’

HMS Queen Elizabeth’s first operational mission expected to include the disputed sea Chinese defence ministry criticises ‘flexing muscles’ and Nato report that said China’s authoritarianism and territorial ambitions posed ‘acute challenges’

HMS Queen Elizabeth’s first operational mission expected to include the disputed sea

Chinese defence ministry criticises ‘flexing muscles’ and Nato report that said China’s authoritarianism and territorial ambitions posed ‘acute challenges’