Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent representations his Department has made to China on that country's behaviour in the South China Sea.

In the South China Sea, our commitment is to international law, particularly the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and to freedom of navigation and overflight. We encourage all parties to settle their disputes peacefully through the existing legal mechanisms, particularly UNCLOS. This is in line with the recently published Integrated Review where we set out our commitment to upholding the international rules and norms that underpin free trade, security and stability.

We routinely raise our concerns, both in private and in public, with Chinese officials, including about reports of militarisation, coercion and intimidation in the South China Sea. We will continue to do so where we have concerns. In May last year, officials raised concerns with Chinese authorities about recent incidents, including the creation of new administrative territories. On 3 September 2020, I [Minister Adams] set out our legal analysis on the South China Sea in full to Parliament for the first time. On 16 September 2020, we issued a joint Note Verbale with France and Germany to the UN's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in response to assertions in Chinese Notes Verbale that we consider inconsistent with UNCLOS. On 8 December 2020, the UK made a national statement at the annual UN General Assembly debate on the Law of the Sea reiterating our legal position on the South China Sea.