BRITAIN is sending a warship through the South China Sea to challenge China’s claims to the waters off its coast, Defence Minister Gavin Williamson said today.

Mr Williamson said HMS Sutherland would sail through the area on its return from Australia, where it was headed after leaving the US military base in the Chagos Islands, whose residents were told recently by a British court they could never return.

He told The Australian newspaper that the gunboat’s voyage would make “it clear our navy has a right” to sail through the South China Sea.