The guided missile destroyer USS Barry passed through the Straits on October 14 – US Pacific Fleet.
Washington:
A US warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait in what the US military described as a “routine” passage on Wednesday, but it angered China, which claims sovereignty over the island and surrounding seas.
Ties between Beijing and Washington have deteriorated in recent months, over issues including trade and Hong Kong, with the autonomous island of Taiwan being a long-standing source of tension.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Barry passed through the Strait on October 14, according to a statement from the United States 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 United States Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere that international law allows,” he added.
Any operation by the US Navy in the Taiwan Strait, which separates China from the island, provokes a strong response from Beijing, which considers Taiwan an inviolable part of its territory.
In an irate response, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army said it tracked the USS Barry by sea and air “throughout the process.”
“We warn the United States to stop its words and deeds that cause problems and disturb the situation in the Taiwan Strait,” said Eastern Theater Command spokesman Colonel Zhang Chunhui.
The island has been ruled separately since the end of a civil war in China in 1949.
Taiwan has its own flag, currency and army, but the UN does not recognize it as an independent nation.
Washington ended its diplomatic ties with Taipei in 1979 to improve relations with China, but the United States remains the island’s most powerful ally and its main supplier of weapons.
The Chinese have threatened to use force if Taipei proclaims independence or if there is foreign intervention.
Beijing views the passage of foreign ships through the Straits 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 headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
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