Mr Wallace has declined to say whether the fleet would breach China’s 12-mile zone.

“It’s no secret that China shadows and challenges ships transiting international waters on very legitimate routes,” he told The Times on July 20.

“We will respect China and we hope that China respects us … we will sail where international law allows.”

The tensions come after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said there was a global “battle for hearts and minds” to attempt to reduce China’s influence on international organisations.

Speaking in the Commons on July 6, Mr Raab said he was “very familiar with the routing” of the group and had discussed the deployment with his Chinese counterpart, insisting it was being done in a “confident but not confrontational” way.

China has displayed increasing aggressiveness in the South China Sea, where a number of South East Asian countries all lay claim to the rocks, reefs and waters.

Beijing has continually ramped up its maritime push in these resource-rich waters — including into the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait, angering Japan and Taiwan — while the world has been busy battling the coronavirus pandemic.

It has recently deployed its “little blue men,” a maritime militia that helps China assert its territorial claims.

The concern has long been that Beijing could cut off access to the South China Sea – a key international shipping route — as a way to squeeze nations during diplomatic rows.