British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, part of a team not known for adamantine resistance to Chinese Communist Party predations in the South China Sea and elsewhere, has irked the government with which he has been so eager to reset diplomatic relations (“Beijing warns UK against ‘provoking tensions’ over South China Sea following British foreign secretary’s comments,” Agence France-Presse, March 11, 2025).
In a video partly filmed alongside a vessel belonging to the Philippine Coast Guard, Lammy on Monday condemned “dangerous and destabilising activities” by Beijing in the South China Sea.
China claims the strategically important waterway in nearly its entirety, despite an international ruling that its claims have no legal basis.
Asked about Lammy’s comments, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said “the UK should respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea and refrain from provoking tensions or sowing discord over regional disputes”.
“The South China Sea is currently one of the safest and freest maritime routes in the world,” Mao said.
In the cited video, Lammy also mentions China’s premier target in the South China Sea: “The Philippines is at the sharp end of this, facing frequent challenges to freedom of navigation and international law.”
Sounds abstract. Lammy doesn’t mention the sort of thing that these “challenges of freedom of navigation” consist of, like the China Coast Guard’s ramming and water-cannoning and lasering of Philippine ships and personnel within the Philippine exclusive economic zone. Well, it’s a 43-second video, and you can’t say everything in 43 seconds.
The foreign secretary’s generalities were on-target enough to provoke another tranche of CCP lies. I counted five quoted by AFP: 1) Objecting to China’s arbitrary assaults on other countries constitutes a failure to “respect China’s territorial integrity.” 2) China’s “maritime rights” include the right to arbitrarily assault other countries. 3) Objecting to China’s provoking of tensions and sowing of discord “provokes tensions” and “sows discord.” 4) The South China Sea is one of the safest maritime routes in the world. 5) The South China Sea is one of the freest maritime routes in the world.
In the view or pretended view of the Chinese government, anybody who objects even broadly and briefly to its perpetual provoking of tensions is himself provoking tensions. Don’t make a tense situation worse! Leave us bullies alone! This isn’t any of your business! Walk away! Walk away!
