Britain's Brexit trade deal with Beijing put at risk by South China Sea 'provocation', state media warns
China yesterday warned the UK it had jeopardised post-Brexit relations by sailing a British warship close to islands in the South China Sea claimed by Beijing last week.
Britain has been working to boost trade with the world’s second-largest economy as Brexit looms, talking up a “golden era” in ties.
The two nations agreed last month to look at the possibility of a post-Brexit free trade deal that, if struck, would be a key achievement for Prime Minister Theresa May.
"What the British side did is wrong,” said Chinese Foreign MInistry spokeswoman Hua Chunying in a daily press briefing. “It will have a negative impact on the development of China-UK relations.”
Chinese state media specifically cautioned that a post-Brexit trade deal was at stake. “China and the UK had agreed to actively explore the possibility of discussing a free trade agreement after Brexit, but any act that harms China's core interests will only put a spanner in the works,” said an English-language editorial in state-run newspaper China Daily.
“But by trying to revive the ‘special relationship’ in this way now it is no longer the gateway to continental Europe, the UK risks losing more than it can gain,” said the editorial.
Warship HMS Albion, a 22,000 ton amphibious warship carrying a contingent of Royal Marines passed by the Paracel Islands on Aug. 31, where it was confronted by the Chinese military.
The Albion was on its way to Ho Chi Minh City where it docked Monday after a deployment in and around Japan. The Paracels have long been disputed and were the site of a major naval battle in the 1970s between China and Vietnam, after which Beijing claimed sovereignty.
The group of more than 30 islands in the South China Sea are now occupied entirely by China though Beijing’s claims remain contested by Vietnam and Taiwan. China has laid claim to other groups of disputed islands in the South China Sea, where roughly $3 trillion in trade pass through each year.
Britain’s decision to send a warship into contested waters was a move to “curry favor with the United States,” said the China Daily editorial.
The move “obviously runs counter to the consensus and spirit put forth by the leaders of our two countries that we are willing to join hands to build a ‘golden era’ of China-UK ties,” Hua said.
Adding to the tension, China’s Foreign Ministry also said it was “ridiculous for the UK to pose as a ‘supervisor’” and that Britain should stop interfering in Hong Kong, a former British colony.
The comments came after the UK issued issued its latest biannual report on the special administrative region. In it, Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary, noted the "growing concern about the extent of freedom of speech in Hong Kong, particularly in the context of discussion of independence", while also stating that Britain does not think independence is a realistic or desirable option.
China said the issue of independence had nothing to do with freedom of speech and was a serious violation of China's constitution and Hong Kong law.
"It fundamentally is not within the scope of freedom of expression," the ministry said. "The central government has zero tolerance for 'Hong Kong independence' and will never indulge it."
