US WARSHIPS SAIL THROUGH TAIWAN STRAIT
Two American warships passed through the Taiwan Strait on Saturday on a voyage that will likely be viewed on the selfruled island as a sign of support by US President Donald Trump amid heightened tension with China.
“Two US Navy ships conducted a routine transit through the international waters of the Taiwan Strait on July 7-8 (local time),” Capt. Charlie Brown, a spokesperson for the US Pacific Fleet, told Reuters in a statement.
“US Navy ships transit between the South China Sea and East China Sea via the Taiwan Strait and have done so for many years,” Brown added.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two American destroyers—USS Mustin and USS Benfold—carried out the passage.
In accord with regulations
Earlier on Saturday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said the US destroyers were moving in a northeastern direction, adding that the situation was in accordance with regulations.
For its part, China regularly says Taiwan is the most sensitive issue in its ties with the United States. China and Taiwan split in 1949 following the communist victory in the civil war.
The passage through the Taiwan Strait, the first by a US Navy ship in about a year, fol- lows a series of Chinese military drills around the island that have stoked tensions between Taipei and Beijing.
Taiwan Strait tensions
“The US is aggravating Taiwan Strait tensions,” The Global Times, which is run by the People’s Daily, said on Twitter.
“The PLA Navy must have monitored the situation and has it under control, a military affairs expert said after two US Navy vessels sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Saturday,” added the state-controlled tabloid.
China claims Taiwan as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring under its control what it sees as a wayward province.
Taiwan, however, has shown no interest in being governed by the ruling Communist Party in Beijing.
The American naval maneuver comes as a US-China trade fight is projected to drag on, as the world’s two biggest economies flex their muscles with no sign of negotiations to settle their differences.
Trump on Friday rolled out 25-percent tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods in what Beijing called the “largest trade war” in economic history. China said it was hitting back with retaliatory measures on US goods.
US carrier transit overdue
Reuters first reported last month that the United States was considering sending a warship and had examined plans for an aircraft carrier passage, but the latter did not pursue that option perhaps because of concerns about up- setting China.
The last time a US aircraft carrier transited the Taiwan Strait was in 2007, during the administration of then President George W. Bush, and some US military officials believe a carrier transit is overdue.
US overtures toward Taiwan, from unveiling a new de facto embassy to passing the Taiwan Travel Act encouraging US officials to visit the island, have further escalated tension between Beijing and Taipei.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis discussed the delicate issue of Taiwan during his trip to China last month.
“The US sending military ships through the Taiwan Strait is both a demonstration of its continuing support to Taiwan and of its willingness to exercise its maritime rights in China’s periphery,” said Abraham Denmark, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia under then President Barack Obama.
Taipei alarmed
Beijing has alarmed Taipei by ramping up military exercises this year, including flying bombers and other military aircraft around the island and sending its carrier through the narrow Taiwan Strait separating it from Taiwan.
In recent months, China’s Air Force has held military maneuvers near the island, which Taipei has called intimidation.
China’s hostility toward Taiwan has grown since Tsai Ingwen from the proindependence Democratic Progressive Party won the presidential election on the island in 2016.
Tsai has criticized China for attempting to change the status quo between the two sides and urged the world to “constrain” the latter’s ambitions.