China’s military called the recent transit of a British warship through the Taiwan Strait a disruptive act of “intentional provocation” that “undermines peace and stability”. The British Royal Navy says it was a pre-planned deployment and was in line with international law when HMS Spey patrolled on Wednesday.
The patrol – the first in four years by a British warship – is made as a UK carrier strike group enters the area to commit troops for a tour that will run several months. China regards Taiwan as its territory – a position rejected by self-ruled Taiwan – and has not excluded the threat of force to “reunify” the island.
A Chinese navy spokesman denounced the UK for “publicly hyping up” the voyage of HMS Spey, and accused the UK of making “a distortion of legal principles and an effort to mislead the people”. These actions are deliberate provocations that throw the situation into disarray and sabotage peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”.
It further added that it had observed HMS Spey during its voyage in the strait, and Chinese troops “will resolutely counter all threats and provocations”.
Subsequently, a Chinese foreign ministry official statedChina criticizes U.S. for Taiwan policy changes that as China respects others’ freedom of navigation through the Taiwan Strait, it also “firmly opposes any country using the name of freedom of navigation to provoke and threaten China’s sovereign security”.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry has, in turn, commended the patrol as a measure that ensured the freedom of navigation across the Taiwan Strait. Though American warships frequently carry out freedom of navigation operations in the strait, a British warship’s last such voyage was in 2021 when the warship HMS Richmond went to Vietnam.
That journey was also criticized by China, which had deployed troops to follow the vessel. HMS Spey is one of two warships to remain permanently on station in the Indo-Pacific.
Its journey through the Taiwan Strait follows a UK carrier strike group, under the leadership of HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier, deploying to the Indo-Pacific region for an eight-month deployment.
British PM Keir Starmer has called it one of the largest deployments of the carrier this century that is meant to “send a clear message of strength to our adversaries, and a message of unity and purpose to our allies”.
Approximately 4,000 UK troops are involved in the deployment. The group will be interacting with 30 nations through military exercises and visits, and hold exercises with the US, India, Singapore and Malaysia.
Tensions across the strait between China and Taiwan have increased over the last year since Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who is a strong advocate of a hardline anti-Beijing position, came to power.
He has described Beijing as a “foreign hostile force” and put in place policies aimed at Chinese influence operations in Taiwan. In the meantime, China keeps carrying out regular military drills in the Taiwan Strait, among others, a live-fire exercise in April that it said rehearsed assaults on strategic ports and energy targets.
China’s latest condemnation of HMS Spey’s passage comes when two Chinese aircraft carriers are carrying out an unprecedented joint military exercise in the Pacific off Japan’s coastal waters, which has sent alarm bells ringing in Tokyo.
