US sends warship through Taiwan Strait ahead of presidential inauguration

A US warship sailed through the narrow Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, less than two weeks before Taiwan’s new president takes office, prompting an angry denunciation from Beijing.

China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan and says it has jurisdiction over the strait. Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying the Taiwan Strait is an international waterway. U.S. warships, and occasionally U.S. Navy patrol aircraft, pass through or over the strait about once a month.

The timing of the latest mission was particularly sensitive as it took place ahead of the May 20 inauguration of Taiwan’s newly elected President Lai Ching-te, a man China says is a dangerous separatist. The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey was conducting a “routine transit through the Taiwan Strait” on Wednesday “through waters where the freedom of navigation and overflight of the high seas applies in accordance with international law”.

The Chinese military described the voyage as a “public hype” and added that it had sent naval and air forces to monitor, warn and “deal with” the US ship during the voyage in accordance with the laws and regulations’. “Troops in the theater are always on high alert and will resolutely defend national sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability,” the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said in a statement.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the US ship was sailing south through the strait and that Taiwanese forces had been monitoring the situation but had observed nothing unusual. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s claims of sovereignty and says only the island’s people can decide their future.

Lai, currently vice president, has repeatedly offered to talk to China but was rebuffed. Taiwan is alert to any Chinese military maneuvers around the island in the run-up to and after the inauguration.

Over the past four years, the Chinese military has vastly expanded its activities around Taiwan, including flying warplanes across the center line of the strait, which once served as an unofficial buffer zone. China says it does not recognize the existence of the line.

On Thursday morning, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said in its daily report on Chinese military activities over the past 24 hours that it had detected four Chinese aircraft crossing the center line and flying near Taiwan’s Penghu Islands, where a major air base is located .

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)