The guided-missile destroyer USS Barry crossed the strait on October 14: US Pacific Fleet
Washington:
A US warship crossed the Taiwan Strait in what the US military described as a “routine” passage on Wednesday, but which angered China, which claims sovereignty over the island and surrounding seas .
Ties between Beijing and Washington have deteriorated in recent months, over issues such as trade and Hong Kong, with the autonomous island of Taiwan a long-standing source of tension.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Barry crossed the strait on October 14, according to a statement from the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
“The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the statement said.
“The US Navy will continue to fly, navigate and operate wherever international law permits,” he added.
Any US Navy operation in the Taiwan Strait, which separates China from the island, provokes a strong response from Beijing, which regards Taiwan as an inviolable part of its territory.
In a furious retaliation, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army said it had followed the USS Barry by sea and air “throughout the process.”
“We warn the United States to cease its words and actions which cause unrest and disturb the situation in the Taiwan Strait,” said Colonel Zhang Chunhui, spokesman for Eastern Theater Command.
The island has been governed separately since the end of a civil war in China in 1949.
Taiwan has its own flag, its own currency, and its own armed forces, but it is not recognized as an independent nation by the UN.
Washington ended diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 in order to improve relations with China, but the United States remains the island’s most powerful ally and its main arms supplier.
The Chinese have threatened to use force if Taipei proclaims independence or if there is foreign intervention.
Beijing considers the passage of foreign ships through the strait as a violation of its sovereignty.
Washington and many other countries, on the other hand, view the waterway as part of international waters and therefore open to all.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
