Hong Kong: The US navy said that two of its warships were sailing through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, the first such passage by American ships since China began large-scale military exercises in response to a visit to Taiwan by speaker Nancy Pelosi early this month.
The guided-missile cruisers Antietam and Chancellorsville were conducting what the navy called “a routine Taiwan Strait transit.” American officials said this month that the navy would continue to operate around Taiwan, despite China’s claims to control the waterway.
The Chinese military said in a statement that it had monitored the ships’ passage but did not indicate any additional response. “Eastern theater forces remainon high alert, ready to thwart any provocation,” it said. After Pelosi visited Taiwan on August 2-3, China launched missiles into waters that are part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone and carried out 72 hours of live fire exercises around Taiwan.
Chinese officials have called on the US to halt military activities in the region and accused the Americans of exacerbating tensions. The US navy said its ships did not sail through any territorial waters while transiting the Taiwan Strait and that the passage was meant to uphold the freedom to navigate the high seas. “These ships transited through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” the navy said. “The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US’ commitment to a free and open Indo Pacific. The US military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows. ” Taiwan’s military said the two US warships had sailed from north to south through the strait and that their voyage appeared “normal. ”
More lawmakers to visit Taiwan
Another group of US lawmakers will visit Taiwan, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reported, the third such visit this month and defying pressure from Beijing. The Central News Agency did not name the lawmakers who were coming, saying only that they would arrive on a US military aircraft at Taipei’s downtown Songshan airport and would meet Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that “important guests” would arrive at Songshan airport. It gave no details and declined to comment further. The de facto US embassy in Taipei declined to comment.
