China says US warship sailing in Taiwan Strait ‘provocative’

TAIPEI: A US warship sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Saturday, part of what the US military calls routine activity but which China described as "provocative".

The voyage through the Taiwan Strait by the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson was a routine transit, the US Seventh Fleet said.

"The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," it said in a statement.

"The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows."

Taiwan’s defence ministry confirmed a US vessel was sailing through the strait, adding its military was "fully monitoring relevant activities near our sea and air, and the situation was normal".

US warships periodically conduct exercises in the strait, often triggering angry responses from Beijing, which claims Taiwan and the surrounding waters as its own territory.

The United States and many other countries view the route as international waters open to all.

A growing number of US allies have transited the route as Beijing intensifies its military threats towards Taiwan and solidifies its control over the disputed South China Sea.

British, Canadian, French and Australian warships have all made passages through the Taiwan Strait in recent years, sparking protests from Beijing.

Collin Koh, a research fellow at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, keeps a database of declared US transits through the Taiwan Strait.

Nine were conducted in 2019 followed by 15 in 2020 and 12 last year. So far this year there have been two, including the USS Ralph Johnson crossing.Taiwan's Defence Ministry said that on Saturday eight Chinese aircraft - six fighters and two anti-submarine aircraft - flew into its ADIZ, to the northeast of the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands at the top end of the South China Sea.

Beijing calls Taiwan the most sensitive and important issue in its relations with Washington.

Like most countries, the United States has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is its most important international backer and arms supplier.