Two US Navy warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, the first such operation since the unprecedented Chinese military drills around Taiwan, held in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the self-governed island earlier this month.
Two guided missile destroyers – USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville – of the US navy were transiting through the Taiwan Strait, conducting a routine transit, the US 7th Fleet said in a statement on Sunday.
“Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers USS Antietam (CG 54) and USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) are conducting a routine Taiwan Strait transit August 28 through waters where high seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” the statement said.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) responded by tracking and monitoring the passage of the two ships, and said they were “ready to thwart any provocation”.
The PLA’s eastern theatre command “conducted security tracking and monitoring of the US warships’ passage in the whole course, and had all movements of the two US warships under control,” Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the command said in a written statement on Sunday.
“The troops of the PLA Eastern Theatre Command always stay on high alert and get ready to thwart any provocation,” Shi said.
Tensions in the Taiwan Strait soared to their highest level in years this month after Pelosi visited Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory and has not ruled out using force to bring it under its control. It routinely issues warnings and threats of retaliation at formal interactions between Taiwan and a third country.
Since Pelosi’s visit, the China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has continued to hold naval drills around the island through the month in the backdrop of more visits by US and Japanese diplomats to Taipei.
A group of five US lawmakers visited Taiwan soon after Pelosi’s short but high-profile visit. The PLA’s eastern theatre command organised multi-service joint combat readiness patrols and combat drills in the sea and airspace around Taiwan in response to their visit.
“These ships transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State,” the US Navy said in its statement, without mentioning China or Taiwan by name.
“The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows,” the statement said.
China conducted its largest ever Chinese military exercise around Taiwan in response to Pelosi’s visit. The PLA fired missiles over the island and deployed jets and warships for the massive drill.
The PLA says the exercises are “a solemn deterrent to political plays by the US and Taiwan that are undermining the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait”.
