US warships transits Taiwan Strait as China opens annual congress

Taipei (AFP): An American warship passed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, the US Navy said, in a routine voyage through the narrow waterway separating the self-ruled island from mainland China.

Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, has stepped up military and political pressure on Taipei in recent years — and reacts angrily to “freedom of navigation” missions by foreign warships.

The voyage by the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn comes on the same day that China’s annual National People’s Congress kicked off in Beijing.

“The transit occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state’s territorial seas,” the Seventh Fleet said in a statement.

“Within this corridor, all nations enjoy high-seas freedoms of navigation, overflight, and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms.”

It added that US ships have transited between the South China Sea and the East China Sea via the Taiwan Strait for many years.

The United States and its Western allies have increased crossings by naval vessels in the Taiwan Strait and the disputed South China Sea, to reinforce that both are international waterways.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had tracked activity in “the surrounding sea and airspace” during the transit, adding the “situation was normal”.

Beijing, which has never renounced to use of force against the island, dismissed the latest transit as “public hype” and said its navy and air force had trailed the US warship’s “entire course.”

“Troops in the theatre remain on constant high alert to respond to all threats and provocations at any time,” Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesman for China’s Eastern Theatre Command, said in a statement.