AUSTRALIA AND BRITAIN CALL OUT CHINA FOR HONG KONG, SOUTH CHINA SEA AND RUSSIA SUPPORT

Australia and Britain criticised China on Friday for its actions in Hong Kong, the South China Sea and its support of Russia, after a meeting in which London and Canberra deepened their security ties. The two countries called out "recent unsafe and destabilising behaviour by China's vessels against Philippine vessels and crew near the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea", in a statement that contained unusually direct language on Beijing's activities in the region.

In a joint statement earlier this month with Southeast Asian nations, Australia called for restraint in the South China Sea, without explicitly mentioning China. China, which claims almost all of the South China Sea, has repeatedly warned neighbouring countries to refrain from violating its territorial sovereignty as altercations at certain atolls in the vast economic waterway intensify.

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