Open this photo in gallery The Senate chamber. The Senate is set to vote on a contentious motion on Tuesday calling on China to cease aggressive activities to expand and strengthen its grip in the disputed South China Sea.

The Senate is set to vote on a contentious motion on Tuesday calling on China to cease aggressive activities to expand and strengthen its grip in the disputed South China Sea.

For almost two years, independent and Liberal senators have been holding up the vote on a motion by Conservative Senator Thanh Hai Ngo, which expresses concern about China’s construction of artificial islands and military expansion in the Paracel and Spratly island chains.

Mr. Ngo told The Globe and Mail that he fears Liberal and independent senators will team up to kill the measure on Tuesday. Defeat would be a “missed opportunity for the Senate to urge the government to take a principled position on one of the biggest geopolitical conflicts of our time,” he said.

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The motion, first introduced in May, 2016, begins by saying the Senate notes “with concern the escalating and hostile behaviour exhibited by the People’s Republic of China in the South China Sea” and urges all parties in the region to uphold the rights of freedom of navigation and overflight as enshrined in international law and the United Nations Convention of the Sea.

It calls for an end to building artificial islands and militarization of the region and asks all countries in the area to find a peaceful solution that respects settlements reached by international arbitration. In July, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that China had no historical title over the South China Sea and it had breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights.

The leader of the largest group in the Senate, who opposes the motion, said he believes it is difficult for the Red Chamber to make informed pronouncements on fast-evolving foreign policy conflicts because members may not be sufficiently briefed on such far-off matters.

Senator Yuen Pau Woo, the head of the 44-member Independent Senators Group, has already spoken out against Motion 92. A former head of the Asia Pacific Foundation, who advocated for closer ties to China and elsewhere in the region, used his first speech in the Senate 18 months ago to argue against this measure.

“It is challenging for senators with limited knowledge about complex conflicts in different parts of the world to make pronouncements on those conflicts,” Mr. Woo said.

“I also believe that our objective in making any such pronouncements should be to actually improve the situation rather than [making them] for domestic political purposes or to simply make us feel good about having made a pronouncement.”

The Canadian government supports the 2016 international court ruling that found Beijing had no legal basis to its claims of historic rights.

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According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, China has, over the past decade, “effectively seized over 80 per cent of the South China Sea, an area about the size of Western Europe.”

Beijing has turned coral reefs and small islets into man-made islands with military radar stations and air strips and regularly holds large-scale naval operations there. Oil drilling platforms are also being deployed in the contested waters.

The chief of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Admiral Philip S. Davidson, has told U.S. Congress that Beijing has built up enough military infrastructure in the South China Sea to completely control the disputed waterway and could potentially disrupt the busy trade routes.

But Mr. Woo said he doesn’t believe Motion 92 will contribute to defusing tension in the South China Sea or help Canada’s interest in the region. He said he supports the 2016 international court ruling himself, but adds that, in his opinion, events have overtaken Mr. Ngo’s resolution.

Mr. Woo said the Senate is not equipped to deal with rapidly evolving foreign-policy topics.

“The reality is that foreign policy – international diplomacy – is a fast-moving arena of action that requires dedicated professional expertise to watch and monitor and respond in a very timely manner,” Mr. Woo said.

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“Almost certainly there is nobody in our chamber – myself included, and you know my background – who can claim to be close to the developments in the South China Sea,” he said.

He also points out that the Philippines, under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, has not pressed China on the 2016 court decision. Elected shortly before the court ruling, Mr. Duterte has weakened relations with the United States and realigned his country with China and pledged to work with Beijing on sharing offshore resources in the South China Sea.

- With a report from Reuters