The remarks were made in response to expectations that britain's newest
aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will be deployed to the pacific region,
including the contentious sea for its first operational mission.
"The chinese side believes that the south china sea should not become a sea
of great power rivalry dominated by weapons and warships," defense ministry
spokesman Tan Kefi said when asked about Britain's plans during a monthly
press conference in Beijing on thursday.
Former british defense minister gavin williamson had said that hms queen
elizabeth's first operational mission would include the south china sea,
making a global great britain a reality.
The aircraft carrier and its strike group are also expected to join forces
with the american military and the japanese self-defense forces near Japan's
Ryukyu Islands as soon as early next year, according to
Kyodo News.
The United States which in july formally denied china's illegal claims over
most of the contested sea and has criticized it for militarizing features
there, has regularly sent warships through the region to challenge the
claims which were ruled by a 2016 international tribunal to have no legal
basis.
But the chinese government has maintained that the US and its western allies
are the instigators of tension. The real source of militarization in the
south china sea comes from countries outside this region sending their
warships thousands of kilometers from home to flex muscles, Tan said.
The chinese military will take necessary measures to safeguard its
sovereignty, security and development interest as well as peace and
stability in the south china sea. Tan criticized a recent NATO report, that
called for the transatlantic security alliances thirty member countries to
focus more on security challenges posed by China.
China opposes the baseless speculation and false accusation in the report
and its defense policy remains defensive in nature, tan said.
"China's defense build up and development has always been an addition to the
global force for peace, he said."
"We hope various parties can correct their prejudice and have a rational
view of china and its military development, He added.
The report on the future of the alliance said the scale of chinese power and
global reach poses acute challenges to open and democratic societies,
particularly because of that country's trajectory to greater
authoritarianism and an expansion of its territorial ambitions.
Russia will remain the primary military threat to NATO for the foreseeable
future, a co-chair of the expert group that drafted the report former US
diplomat Wes Mitchell said in a discussion of the report.
But he said the rise of china is the single biggest most consequential
change in NATO's strategic environment and one that the alliance really has
to reckon with.
The arrival of the carrier strike group in the region has provoked some
angry words from beijing, rusi's research fellow for naval power points out
that when it comes to naval standoffs, China's actions have been calibrated
as being well below the threshold of anything that would start a shooting
war.
The deployment of HMS Queen Elizabeth and its escort ships to east asia is
seen as part of the British government's bid to play a more prominent role
in global security, as set out in the government's recent integrated review.
France too as well as other european nations has been turning its attention
towards the south china sea as china's growing military and economic power
appears unstoppable.
China has recently embarked on a major uplift in its nuclear ballistic
missile arsenal, building new launch silos in the remote Xinjiang region. It
has also been developing hypersonic glide vehicles, high velocity missiles
that can reach speeds of up to eight times the speed of sound and which have
been dubbed carrier killers.
