Chinese expansionism, aggressive territorial claims and growing influence in areas of the world that can provide them with raw materials is increasing year by year. Add the overlapping territorial claims to parts of the South China Sea and it is an area that could be quite volatile in future. I have attended numerous government to government meetings between the UK and some of the countries in that area and my position at the table was sometimes determined so that delegates from certain countries would not be adjacent to each other (and neither of them was China).