US Edition
There is only one reason why China’s supremely cynical and manipulative rulers will have received Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the Chief of the Defence Staff, in Beijing this week. Britain is about to dispatch HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, on a 10,000-mile voyage to the Far East, sailing with an escort of frigates and destroyers all the way to Japan and back.
China will have told Admiral Radakin that our Carrier Strike Group must steer clear of the disputed islands in the South China Sea, which President Xi Jinping has studded with military outposts.
Above all, Admiral Radakin will have been warned to keep our ships out of the Taiwan Strait, where China’s armed forces routinely rehearse the invasion of that democratic island.
We are entitled to assume that Admiral Radakin will have replied that the Royal Navy is free to sail wherever the law of the sea allows. But this Government is quietly restoring the old “golden era” of relations with China that so discredited David Cameron and George Osborne. British ministers are visiting Beijing in steady procession, seeking trade and investment.
They will be sorely tempted to draw a route for the Carrier Strike Group that bows to China’s sensitivities. But surrendering to intimidation merely invites more of the same. China should be told that HMS Prince of Wales will sail by whichever course makes the most operational sense and no country has any right to dictate otherwise.
Still ruling the waves: our navy must not cower to China
Beijing should be told that HMS Prince of Wales will sail by whichever course makes the most operational sense