This article is genuinely terrible. They knew they couldn’t put “In the South China Sea, China has begun to invade,” so they put “Xi” instead. China’s claims to the South China Sea have been shown to be evidentially indisputable (A.S. Wood (U.S. captain), Historically Mine), internationally coming down to the semantics of description and politics. This is not to say China should have sole control over the South-China Sea, rather, China is not “encroaching” on land which is provably foreign in any way beyond political bias.

Just recently Beijing manoeuvred 12 ships (three of which were warships) to within four nautical miles of Taiwan. The United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has a clear list on what you can do inside someone else’s territorial waters (less than 12 nautical miles off the coast), and this isn’t on it.

Weird, I was under the impression that the United Nations "[considers] ‘Taiwan’ as a province of China with no separate status,” that they hold that “authorities in ‘Taipei’ are not considered to… enjoy any form of government status,” and that they “[consider] ‘Taiwan’ for all purposes to be an integral part of the People’s Republic of China.” (United Nations Judicial Yearbook, 2010, pages 516 & 540).

This most recent surge in activity is likely a show of force before Taiwan’s presidential inauguration on 20 May, but more broadly it achieves five things. It demonstrates ‘tough leadership’ to the people of China, something that is important to all dictatorships.

Taiwan’s presidential election? Do you mean the election of the President of the Republic of China? No, that would require reassessing this entire narrative spewn. And this idiot thinks that, since the PRC is a designated enemy, he can just say that it’s a dictatorship with no source or elaboration (he can, because The Telegraph publishes garbage).

In this regard, the annual Balikatan training exercise has come at a good time. This started as a small navy-to-navy drill during the Cold War but has gradually grown to become the premier military exercise between the US and the Philippines with 16,000 military participants in total, 11,000 from the US. Australia also contributed and this year, for the first time, so did France.

Lt. Gen. William Jurney, US Marine Corps Forces Pacific commander said: “Balikatan is a tangible demonstration of our shared commitment to each other. It matters for regional peace and stability. When we increase our mutual response and defense capabilities, we strengthen our ability to promote regional security and protect our shared interests”.

Finally, the US with military bases all over Asia, the US that orchestrated a coup and massacre in the mentioned non-aligned Indonesia to control its affairs, the US that carpet-bombed the mentioned Vietnam and killed millions in an attempt to exert control, this beacon of freedom and non-interference can stand up to China’s “aggression” out of the goodness of its heart. And Australia as well! The US’s little lapdog whose only leader that attempted to achieve independence from US control was couped so that they too can get a good taste of TSA patdowns.