Feb. 12 (UPI) — The U.S. Navy sent two vessels to transit the Taiwan Strait for the first time since President Donald Trump took office, and China tracked their progress through the disputed seaway.
The two vessels are the destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the survey ship USNS Bowditch, which sailed through the Taiwan Strait on a north-to-south voyage lasting from Monday through Wednesday, USNI News reported.
The Johnson is an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer while the Bowditch is a Pathfinder-class survey vessel.
“Ships transit between the East China Sea and the South China Sea via the Taiwan Strait and have done so for many years,” Navy Commander Matthew, a spokesman for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said Wednesday in a statement.
“The transit occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state’s territorial seas,” Comer said. “Within this corridor, all nations enjoy high-seas freedom of navigation, overflight and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms.”
The Chinese Army, Navy and Air Force tracked the two U.S. Navy vessels during their three-day voyage.
“The U.S.’s actions sent the wrong signals and increased security risks,” China’s People’s Liberation Army spokesman Capt. Li Xi said in a statement.
“The troops of the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command remain on high alert and all times to resolutely safeguard China’s sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability,” Xi said.
China routinely tracks U.S. Navy transits through the Taiwan Strait, which last occurred in October when the USS Higgins and Canadian frigate HMCS Vancouver undertook the voyage.
China has laid claim to the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan, which it considers to be part of China’s sovereign territory.
The Taiwan Strait spans 111 miles and is considered an international waterway.
The U.S. Navy and naval forces of allied nations commonly traverse the strait to challenge China’s territorial claims and affirm its status as an international waterway controlled by no nation.
China also routinely conducts military drills and overflights near Taiwan, and Chinese officials have declared their intent to re-unify with Taiwan by 2047.
The United States and Taiwan are closely allied via the Taiwan Relations Act, which enables the United States to provide Taiwan with arms to defend the island nation and aggression from China or other nations.
Former President Joe Biden repeatedly said the United States would intervene militarily if China were to attack Taiwan.
