British aircraft carrier “Queen Elizabeth” enters Asia and will travel across the South China Sea – BBC News

The Royal Navy’s HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08) aircraft carrier strike group has entered Asia, according to the South China Sea Strategic Reality Awareness Program (SCS-PI) at Peking University announced on Twitter.satellite imageIt turns out that the aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth appeared on Sunday night (25 July) near the Strait of Malacca and is expected to arrive in the Pacific and South China Sea regions soon.

Queen Elizabeth’s official Twitter also posted photos of the ships docking near Singapore on July 26.

The aircraft carrier’s flight to Asia is considered by the British government as a symbol of the “British take-off to the world”. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes to restore the British Navy as the most important naval power in Europe and end what he called the “British era of decline”. . “

However, in addition to Britain’s attempt to resume its military deployment in the Asia-Pacific region, this trip to the South China Sea, which is a battlefield for military strategists, and even joint exercises with Japan and the United States in this region as interpreted by many comments as a sword indicates to China.

Lin Yingyu, a strategic researcher at Chongqing University in Taiwan, analyzed in Chinese for the BBC. For the UK, after Brexit, the UK needs NATO to defend. Therefore, if NATO, which is dominated by the United States, the Kingdom and the United States can extend their power to the Pacific Ocean, it will only be a deterrent to China, and the greater goal should be aimed at Russia.

The US Navy often enters disputed waters in the South China Sea for “free navigation”. China refers to the freedom of navigation that the United States has advocated as “rampant.” Chinese officials have repeatedly criticized Britain’s plan to send ship tankers to Asia, and the state media “Global Times” quoted experts who described the British action as “showing loyalty to the United States and showing a swollen face.”

On May 22, the aircraft carrier “Queen Elizabeth” of the British Royal Navy, accompanied by the battleship group, set off. The Royal Navy said this was the most powerful force it had sent in recent years.

In an interview with BB Chinese, Professor Steve Tsang of the University of London’s School of Asian and African Studies (SOAS) said the British aircraft carrier and the strike group had sailed into the South China Sea this time, noting that any ship in the waters had the right to sail freely.

This is the first flight of the aircraft carrier “Queen Elizabeth”. Through the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean and finally to the Pacific Ocean. The carrier strike group will also visit Japan in September and dock at the Yokosuka base in Kanagawa Prefecture, and is expected to return to the United Kingdom at the end of the 28-week journey.

The notable British dispatch of aircraft carriers to the Indo-Pacific region has added drama to the highly sensitive dispute in the South China Sea.

On the eve of the aircraft carrier’s departure, British Prime Minister Johnson stated that “the British Navy is patrolling in Asia to tell China that the UK believes in the international law of the sea.” It will not provoke active conflicts. After that, to resolve differences between countries.”

Lin Yingyu, who has been studying the Indian Army and the Pacific for a long time, said that although the focus of the outside world is on the diplomatic battle between the British aircraft carrier and China, the greater aim of the British ship’s return to the Asia-Pacific region should be aimed at Russia: ” Russia has just arrived in China before. Military exercises in the Pacific represent an extension of Russia’s power in the Pacific. Of course, the United States also hopes to contain Russia through NATO.”

Strategically, Lin Yingyu added that the biggest impact of the British warship’s return to the Asia-Pacific region is that the US hopes that not only the US will have the right to freedom of navigation in the future, but that too. Countries can also have the right to international mobility.

Some British media have said that Elizabeth will go to Japan but will not pass through the Taiwan Strait. A related analysis indicated that the move does not motivate Beijing.

Based on that, Lin Yingyue said that it was not very important to pass through the Taiwan Strait. The point should be that Britain might place two warships in the Indo-Pacific in the future. “So, where the ship will stop in the future, and with whom it is cooperating, should be even more important.”

The “Queen Elizabeth” strike group that visited Asia also included two Royal Navy frigates, two destroyers, two supply ships and an “Alert-class” submarine, in addition to a US Navy destroyer and a Dutch frigate.

The number of American fighters on the aircraft carrier exceeds the number of British fighters: there are 10 F-35 fighters from the US Marines, while there are only 8 fighters from the British Navy.