Better question: when will a trading country like China realize that their long-term interests a furthered by freedom of navigation. They’re acting like traditional land-power.
The fact that the Brit are doing this makes the Chinese less able to portray this as a purely China/US bilateral spat.
To anyone with the slightest sense of history, Brits using a fleet to try to push the Chinese around won’t sit well with China.
In their mind it’ll be a modern opium war. The Brits have a nasty history in China. Forcing the opium trade on them by warfare. Creating the HSBC to service their drug peddler trade. The period where they divided up China into spheres along with other colonial powers.
Not a good visual for Brits to come sailing in issuing orders. Especially with their third rate navy as it is today.