BEIJING, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Perhaps in an attempt to impress his Japanese colleague, British ambassador to the United States Kim Darroch told a Washington think tank Thursday that British fighter planes visiting Japan will fly over the South China Sea.
Such remarks create the impression that London may soon deviate from a largely aloof attitude over the South China Sea issue and start playing a meddling role there like the United States and Japan.
Should a British warplane embark on a so-called "freedom of navigation" mission in the South China Sea, it would only serve to further complicate the issue and weigh on thriving China-Britain ties.
Thanks to tons of biased Western media reports and a string of irresponsible U.S. military maneuvers in the South China Sea in the past few years, freedom of navigation now seems like a ready excuse for outsider parties to impose themselves over the issue, but the reality is that there's never been any problem with the legitimate passage of ships and planes in the area.
With trillions of dollars worth of goods traversing the patch of water every year, the South China Sea is vital both to global trade and to China's development.
Read the full story at Xinhua
PacificSentinel: it seems the only thing that insecure China knows how to do is threaten when it doesn't get it's own way!