Taipei | A US military ship crossed the Taiwan Strait on Thursday for the first time since the inauguration of US President Joe Biden last month, the US Navy said.
The destroyer USS John S. McCain made a “routine” passage through the arm of the sea between Taiwan and mainland China, the Seventh Fleet said in a statement.
American ships usually use this strait, to the chagrin of Beijing, which considers the island part of its territory.
“China remains vigilant and will respond at all times to threats and provocations,” Chinese diplomacy spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Thursday.
Wang told reporters that his country is “closely monitoring the situation.”
The People’s Republic of China regards foreign navigation in these waters as an infringement of its sovereignty, while the United States and other countries consider that this area belongs to international waters, and is therefore open to all.
The navigation of the USS John S. McCain “demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said the Seventh Fleet.
“The US military will continue to fly, navigate and operate wherever international law permits.”
The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense confirmed this passage without giving the name of the vessel involved. He also said that two American reconnaissance planes and an American fighter had flown near Taiwanese airspace on Monday.
Since the arrival to power in Taiwan in 2016 of President Tsai Ing-wen, from a party considered traditionally hostile by Beijing, the People’s Republic of China has stepped up efforts to further isolate the island, by diplomatic, economic, but also military.
Last year, Chinese military planes made 380 incursions into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (Adiz).
An “Adiz” is an airspace in which a State wishes to identify and locate aircraft for reasons of national security.
Some experts say tensions between mainland China and Taiwan have been at their highest since the mid-1990s.