BEIJING, China (AFP) — China said it was on high alert to statements from countries “playing up” tension in the South China Sea after Britain said it planned to send a warship to the disputed waterway next year to conduct freedom of navigation exercises.
Britain would increase its presence in the waters after it sent four British fighter planes for joint exercises with Japan in the region last year, Defense Minister Michael Fallon said on Thursday (July 27).
The presence of a British vessel threatens to stoke tensions, escalated by China’s naval build-up and its increasingly assertive stance. China claims most of the energy-rich sea where neighbours Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims