Sina Delenda Est

Royal Navy warship confronted by Chinese military in South China Sea
By Chris Graham

HMS Albion passed by the Paracel Islands in recent days to challenge Beijing's excessive claims

A Royal Navy warship has sailed close to islands claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea, a move denounced by China as a "provocation".
In a sign of Britain increasingly flexing its military muscle in the region, HMS Albion last week passed by the Paracel Islands, where it was confronted by the Chinese military.
The Albion, a 22,000 ton amphibious warship carrying a contingent of Royal Marines, was on its way to Saigon, where it docked on Monday after a deployment in and around Japan.
Beijing dispatched a frigate and two helicopters to challenge the British vessel, but both sides remained calm during the encounter, a source told Reuters.
China said Britain was engaged in "provocation" and that it had lodged a strong complaint. 

In a statement to Reuters, the Foreign Ministry said the ship had entered Chinese territorial waters around the Paracel Islands on August 31 without permission, and the Chinese navy had warned them to leave.
A source told Reuters that the Albion did not enter the territorial seas around any features in the hotly disputed region but demonstrated that Britain does not recognise excessive maritime claims around the Paracel Islands. 

Twelve nautical miles is an internationally recognised territorial limit.
The Paracels are occupied entirely by China but also claimed by Vietnam.
A spokesman for the Royal Navy said: “HMS Albion exercised her rights for freedom of navigation in full compliance with international law and norms.”
Dr Euan Graham, a Senior Fellow at the Lowy Institute in Australia, said the move followed an earlier passage by a Royal Navy ship through the Spratly Islands.
He said it was a clear indication of Britain's support for the US, which has said it would like to see more international participation in such actions.
"Also, the fact that Albion was coming from Japan and on her way to Vietnam gives the signal a sharper edge to China," he told The Telegraph.
The Albion is one of three Royal Navy ships deployed to Asia this year, along with HMS Argyll and HMS Sutherland.
"The UK has impressively deployed three Royal Navy surface ships to Asian waters this year, after a long gap between ship visits, to this part of the world," he added. 

Military vehicles are seen in the loading dock of the HMS Albion, the British Royal Navy flagship amphibious assault ship, after the ship's arrival at Harumi Pier in Tokyo.

Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, said in June that deployment of the three ships was intended to send the “strongest of signals” on the importance of freedom of navigation.
Dr Graham said "the bigger test of UK commitment to regional security in the Indo-Pacific is about the consistency of its military presence into the future".
"The Royal Navy is making encouraging noises about sending assets to participate in FPDA (the Five Power Defence Arrangement) exercises as well as forward basing in future."
The FPDA is a regional security institution between Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
China’s claims in the South China Sea, through which some $3 trillion of shipborne trade passes each year, are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Both Britain and the United States say they conduct FONOP operations throughout the world, including in areas claimed by allies.
The British Navy has previously sailed close to the disputed Spratly Islands, further south in the South China Sea, several times in recent years but not within the 12 nautical mile limit, regional diplomatic sources have said.
FONOPs, which are largely symbolic, have so far not persuaded Beijing to curtail its South China Sea activities, which have included extensive reclamation of reefs and islands and the construction of runways, hangars and missile systems.

Foreign aircraft and vessels in the region are routinely challenged by Chinese naval ships and monitoring stations on the fortified islands, sources have said previously.
In April, warships from Australia -- which like Britain is a close US ally -- had what Canberra described as a close "encounter" with Chinese naval vessels in the contested sea.

Britain Is Right to Stand Up to China Over Freedom of Navigation

By sailing through the Spratly Islands, the UK is pushing back against China’s attempts to close off these waters – and standing up for freedom of navigation around the whole world.
By Bill Hayton

HMS Sutherland visits Japan in April.

This weekend the British defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, is likely to reveal that two British naval ships have taken part in ‘freedom of navigation’ operations in the South China Sea during the past month. 

This will highlight a significant revival of British interest in Asian security after four years in which no Royal Navy ship visited the Asia-Pacific.
Williamson is expected to tell the international security conference in Singapore known as the ‘Shangri La Dialogue’ that HMS Albion and HMS Sutherland sailed through parts of the South China Sea to which China is attempting to restrict access. 

HMS Albion navigated through the Spratly Islands in early May en route from Brunei to Japan. 

It is not yet clear where HMS Sutherland sailed but it has recently transited from Japan to Singapore through the same region.
Why is the UK taking an interest in the right of ships to sail through distant waters? 

The simple answer is that China is attempting to reverse hundreds of years of international consensus and close off access to the sea for military vessels. 

If this goes unchallenged, the world will be reverting to an era in which navies had to fight their way through blockades and when seaborne trade, the lifeblood of the global economy, was subject to the whims of coastal states. 

By sailing through the Spratly Islands, the UK is pushing back against China’s attempts to close off these waters – and standing up for freedom of navigation around the whole world.
What are the international rules about military ships sailing across seas? 

Put simply: they can sail almost anywhere they like. 

Both the UK and China have signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the document is clear. 

It was entirely legal for naval ships from any country to sail through even the most hotly disputed regions of the South China Sea.
Countries only ‘own’ the sea up to 12 nautical miles from their coast. 

That is one of the rules laid down by UNCLOS. 

But military vessels can still sail through this ‘territorial sea’ – right up to the coast if they choose – provided they do nothing to threaten ‘peace, good order or security’ or jeopardize anyone’s safety. 

Article 24 of UNCLOS clearly states: ‘The coastal State shall not hamper the innocent passage of foreign ships through the territorial sea.’ 

This right applies everywhere, including around rocks and reefs subject to sovereignty disputes.
These rights – and many others – were agreed by almost every country in the world in 1982, after nine years of negotiations. 

The concern of the British government – and others – is that China is trying to undermine an international agreement by unilaterally acting against its provisions. 

Ten years after it agreed to UNCLOS, China approved its 1992 ‘Law on the Territorial Sea’, which directly contradicts it.
The law states that ‘foreign ships for military purposes shall be subject to approval by the Government of the People’s Republic of China for entering the territorial sea of the People's Republic of China’. 

Then, when China ratified UNCLOS four years later, it asserted an opt-out from the ‘innocent passage’ provisions, requiring that a foreign state ‘obtain advance approval from or give prior notification … for the passage of its warships through the territorial sea’.
China’s position here is hypocritical.

It is making demands on other countries that it does not itself respect in other parts of the globe.
In July 2017, three Chinese naval vessels, including a Type-052D guided missile destroyer, sailed through the English Channel. 

The Dover Strait is 18 nautical miles wide at its narrowest point, meaning the flotilla had to sail through the territorial waters of either Britain or France. 

The Chinese navy made use of the right of ‘innocent passage’ to make the transit to the Baltic Sea in order to take part in war-fighting exercises with the Russian Navy. 

They sailed right past the UK’s naval bases in Plymouth and Portsmouth and nobody objected. This is what freedom of navigation is all about.
If the UK and France took the same position on the territorial sea that China takes, it could have blocked Chinese navy ships from passing through the English Channel. 

In Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore could use the same argument to block the Strait of Malacca to Chinese vessels. 

Is this the world that China wants to create – where states can unilaterally block waterways? 

The consequences for international peace will be dire.
This is particularly important because some Chinese officials have argued for even more restrictions on where ships can sail. 

For example, the sirector of China’s National Institute for South China Sea Studies, a body jointly run by the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the province of Hainan, has argued in a recent book that China has the ‘historic right’ to control navigation across almost the entirety of the South China Sea. 

This would completely undermine the ‘freedom of the seas’ currently enjoyed by every country.
Some of the media reaction to the news of the Royal Navy’s voyages contained an element of this Chinese attitude – as if the UK was somehow impinging on China’s rights simply by sailing through the South China Sea. 

The South China Sea does not belong to China any more than the English Channel belongs to England. 

Outside the territorial sea it belongs to no one at all.
This is a critical test for what has become known as the rules-based international order. 

Governments are supposed to stick to international agreements, not undermine them. 

By sailing through the South China Sea, wherever international law allows, HMS Albion and HMS Sutherland are showing that the British government supports the rules that have prevented superpower conflict for over 70 years. 

China should come forward and make it clear that it respects them as well.