Too scared to offend China: Royal Navy’s new carrier ‘will avoid the Taiwan Strait on maiden voyage’
By Lauren Lewis For Mailonline
April 15, 2021
The Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier strike group will take a circuitous route to avoid the Taiwan Strait to prevent offending Beijing in its maiden voyage in May.
The group, which includes the HMS Queen Elizabeth, will instead go through the South China Sea to the east of the island, which China claims as its own, on route to Japan.
Politicians have jumped to criticise the passage schedule, which many see as being too soft on Beijing, the Telegraph reported.
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told the newspaper the government should ‘revisit their schedule’.
