UK warship HMS Queen Elizabeth enters South China Sea despite warnings from Beijing

Amid escalating tensions in the region, the British aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, and its Carrier Strike Group have entered the South China Sea, according to UK Defence Journal. China claims practically the whole 1.3 million-square-mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory. It has repeatedly denounced the presence of foreign warships there as the root of tensions in the region. 

China says that its claim to the sea is based both on the Law of the Sea Convention and its so-called ‘nine-dash’ line, which extends for 2,000 kilometers from the Chinese mainland, encompassing over half of the sea. However, in 2016, the international tribunal in The Hague ruled against part of China’s claims to the sea.

Rising tensions in South China sea

Tensions have been building in the region, with many countries accusing Beijing of using the resource-rich waterway to intimidate them. Chinese air and sea patrols have been warning ships away from the area, which Beijing believes to be part of its own territorial seas. However, five other governments claim all or part of the sea, through which approximately $5 trillion in goods are shipped every year.

Now, amid growing concerns over China’s territorial ambitions in the region, Freedom of navigation operations (or FONOPs) are routinely conducted by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to counter what Washington refers to as "attempts by coastal states to unjustly limit access to the seas”. Both the US and the UK have previously even enraged China by conducting FONOPs in the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation rights. 

Earlier this month, Britain had even announced that it would permanently deploy two Royal Navy warships in Asia after its Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier arrives in Japan in September. Britain's Defence Minister Ben Wallace confirmed that HMS Queen Elizabeth and her escort fleet will transit international waters claimed by China next month, saying Britain had a “duty” to insist on freedom of navigation. The Royal Navy ships will not have a permanent base, a spokesperson at the British embassy in Tokyo said when asked which ports the Royal Navy ships would operate from.

(Image: AP)