China\u2019s military has called a British warship\u2019s recent passage through the Taiwan Strait a disruptive act of \u201cintentional provocation\u201d that \u201cundermines peace and stability\u201d.<\/p>\n
The British Royal Navy says HMS Spey\u2019s patrol on Wednesday was part of a long-planned deployment and was in accordance with international law.<\/p>\n
The patrol \u2013 the first by a British naval vessel in four years \u2013 comes as a UK carrier strike group arrives in the region for a deployment that will last several months.<\/p>\n
China considers Taiwan its territory \u2013 a claim that self-ruled Taiwan rejects \u2013 and has not ruled out the use of force to \u201creunify\u201d the island.<\/p>\n
China has criticised the UK for \u201cpublicly hyping up\u201d the journey of the HMS Spey, and said the UK\u2019s claims were \u201ca distortion of legal principles and an attempt to mislead the public\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch actions are intentional provocations that disrupt the situation and undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait\u201d.<\/p>\n
It added that it had monitored HMS Spey throughout its journey in the strait, and Chinese troops \u201cwill resolutely counter all threats and provocations\u201d.<\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s foreign ministry has meanwhile praised the patrol as an act that safeguarded the freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait.<\/p>\n
While American warships regularly conduct freedom of navigation exercises in the strait, the last time such a journey was undertaken by a British naval vessel was in 2021 when the warship HMS Richmond was deployed to Vietnam.<\/p>\n
That transit was similarly condemned by China, which had sent troops to monitor the ship.<\/p>\n
HMS Spey is one of two British warships permanently on patrol in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n
Its passage through the Taiwan Strait comes as a UK carrier strike group, led by HMS Prince of Wales\u2019 aircraft carrier, arrives in the Indo-Pacific region for an eight-month stint.<\/p>\n
British PM Keir Starmer has described it as one of the carrier\u2019s largest deployments this century that is aimed at \u201csending a clear message of strength to our adversaries, and a message of unity and purpose to our allies\u201d.<\/p>\n
Around 4,000 UK military personnel are taking part in the deployment.<\/p>\n
The group will be engaging with 30 countries through military operations and visits, and conduct exercises with the US, India, Singapore and Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Cross-strait tensions between China and Taiwan have heightened over the past year since Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who champions a firm anti-Beijing stance, took office.<\/p>\n
He has characterised Beijing as a \u201cforeign hostile force\u201d and introduced policies targeting Chinese influence operations in Taiwan.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, China continues to conduct frequent military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, including a live-fire exercise in April that it claimed simulated strikes on key ports and energy facilities.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s latest criticism of HMS Spey\u2019s transit comes as two Chinese aircraft carriers conduct an unprecedented simultaneous military drill in the Pacific off the waters of Japan, which has alarmed Tokyo.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China\u2019s military has called a British warship\u2019s recent passage through the Taiwan Strait a disruptive act of \u201cintentional provocation\u201d that \u201cundermines peace and stability\u201d. The British Royal Navy says HMS Spey\u2019s patrol on Wednesday was part of a long-planned deployment and was in accordance with international law. The patrol \u2013 the first by a British […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}