Defence Secretary John Healey has said Britain is ready to fight if conflict breaks out over Taiwan.
The island nation has long been at loggerheads with China, strongly rejecting Beijing's claim to sovereignty over it after the countries separated in the late forties.
China's president Xi Jinping has previously said he would not rule out using force in the 'reunification of the motherland'.
And now Mr Healey, when asked what the UK is doing to help countries like Taiwan prepare for potential Chinese escalation, has said Britain would fight in the Pacific.
He was speaking on a visit to the HMS Prince of Wales, docked in the Australian city of Darwin, with the country's deputy prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles.
