US sends warship through Taiwan Strait near China

A US missile destroyer sailed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time in two months on Wednesday, prompting a response from the Chinese military.

The USS Halseyan Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, “conducted a routine transit of the Taiwan Strait on May 8 through waters where freedom of navigation and overflight on the high seas applies in accordance with international law,” the Seventh said US Navy fleet based in Japan said in a statement.

“The ship transited through a Strait corridor that is outside the territorial sea of ​​any coastal state,” it said of the maneuver, the first by a US warship since the USS. John Finn in March, and after a Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft passed through the Taiwan Strait into international airspace last month.

Colonel Li Xi, a spokesman for China’s Eastern Theater Command, said Chinese air and naval forces had been sent to “detect and monitor” the situation. Halsey.

China Military Online, the official portal of the country’s armed forces, called it a “provocative move.”

The 180-kilometer-long waterway, home to some of the world’s most important shipping lanes, separates mainland China from Taiwan, which Communist Party leaders in Beijing say is part of China’s territory despite Taipei’s rejection and waning interest from the Taiwanese public for a political union between the two countries.

Washington has been Taipei’s largest international backer and main arms supplier for decades, even after severing diplomatic ties in favor of Beijing in 1979. Officially, the United States takes no position on sovereignty over Taiwan, but insists that political differences are resolved peacefully.

The country’s presence in the Taiwan Strait and in the waters of the Western Pacific Ocean has long been considered a signal of resolve, and a message to Chinese leaders that US military intervention in any crisis between the two countries is possible and even is likely.

The U.S. Navy has sailed or flown through the strait four times this year, after making 11 transits last year and 10 in 2022, along with the U.S. Coast Guard and allied navies.

“HalseyThe passage through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to upholding the principle of freedom of navigation for all nations,” the Seventh Fleet said. “The United States military flies, sails, and operates wherever international law allows this.”

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the US warship entered the strait from north to south at 7 a.m. local time. It reported no unusual activity during the operation, but said separately on Thursday that 23 Chinese military aircraft and five Chinese naval ships were detected around Taiwan in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. on May 9.

It was unclear whether their presence was related to the Halseyin what was the ship’s first return to Taiwan Strait waters in nearly four years, since an earlier transit in August 2020.

China’s Ministry of Defense did not respond to calls for comment.