China’s military said it had monitored and warned a U.S. destroyer as it sailed through the Taiwan Strait today, the latest such traversing of the sensitive waterway. China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, and claims jurisdiction over the strait. Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying the Taiwan Strait is an international waterway. Most nations and international matitime organisations see the Taiwan Straits as an international waterway.
The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement that the destroyer USS Ralph Johnson made a “routine” transit of the strait in accordance with international law. China’s military described the sailing as “public hype”, adding it had sent naval and air forces to monitor and warn the U.S. ship and “deal with it in accordance with the law and regulations”.
“Troops in the theatre remain on high alert at all times and will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability,” the Eastern Theatre Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army said.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said the ship sailed in a northerly direction through the strait and that Taiwanese forces had monitored the situation but observed nothing unusual. U.S. military ships and aircraft transit the narrow strait about once a month. Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
This even as two German warships await orders from Berlin, their commander said, to determine whether next month they will be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the Taiwan Strait. This at the risk of stoking tensions with Beijing. While the U.S. and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the narrow strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy’s first passage through the strait in 22 years.
China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180 km wide waterway that divides the two sides and is part of the South China Sea. Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
