WASHINGTON:
On Sunday, two US Navy vessels navigated across international waters in the Taiwan Strait, the first such operation since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan infuriated China, which claims the island as its own.
The cruisers Chancellorsville and Antietam were reportedly conducting the ongoing operation, according to the US Navy, which confirmed a Reuters account. These operations typically take eight to twelve hours to complete, and the Chinese military keeps a careful eye on them.
US warships, as well as occasionally those from allies like Britain and Canada, have frequently navigated the strait in recent years, angering China, which claims Taiwan despite the country’s democratically elected government’s objections.
Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan at the beginning of August enraged China, which perceived it as an attempt by the US to meddle in its domestic affairs. China then began conducting ongoing military exercises close to the island.
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“These (US) ships transited through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” the US Navy said.
The operation demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, and the US military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows, the navy said.
The Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command said it was following the ships and warning them.
“Troops in the theater remain on high alert and are ready to thwart any provocation at any time,” it added in a statement.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said the ships were sailing in a southerly direction and that its forces were observing but that “the situation was as normal”.
The narrow Taiwan Strait has been a frequent source of military tension since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the communists, who established the People’s Republic of China.
Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was followed around a week later by a group of five other US lawmakers, with China’s military responding by carrying out more exercises near the island.
Senator Marsha Blackburn, a US lawmaker on the Senate Commerce and Armed Services committees, arrived in Taiwan on Thursday on the third visit by a US dignitary this month, defying pressure from China to halt the trips.
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The administration of US President Joe Biden has sought to keep tension between Washington and Beijing from boiling over into conflict, reiterating that congressional trips are routine.
The United States has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan but is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.
China has never ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control.
Taiwan says the People’s Republic of China has never ruled the island and so has no claim to it, and that only Taiwan’s 23 million people can decide their future.
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