China criticizes the United States for passing a warship through the Taiwan Strait

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The Chinese military criticized the passage of a U.S. destroyer through the Taiwan Strait, which occurred less than two weeks before the island’s entry. new president takes office and as Washington and Beijing make uneven efforts to restore regular military exchanges.

Navy Capt. Li Xi, spokesman for the Eastern Theater Command, accused the United States of having “publicly exaggerated” the passage of the USS Halsey on Wednesday. In a statement, Li said the command, which oversees operations around the strait, “organized naval and air forces to monitor” the ship’s transit and handle matters “in accordance with laws and regulations.”

The Navy’s Seventh Fleet said the Halsey “conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait on May 8 through waters where freedoms of navigation and overflight on the high seas apply in accordance with international law.”

The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer transited a corridor in the Strait that is “beyond the territorial sea” of any coastal state, according to the fleet statement.

“Halsey’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to defending freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle,” it said. “No member of the international community should be intimidated or coerced into giving up their rights and freedoms. The United States military flies, sails and operates wherever international law allows.”

China’s accusation that the transit was “publicly advertised” has been standard practice as Beijing sees the announcements as a means of rejecting China’s ill-defined claims to some degree of control over who can and cannot freely pass through. of the strait. There was no indication that the US Navy had acted differently in the latter case, nor that the Chinese response was any louder.

The last passage of this type It was April 17, a day after the defense chiefs of the United States and China held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. Military-to-military contact stalled in August 2022, when Beijing suspended all such communications after The then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan. China responded with firing missiles about Taiwan and staging increase in military maneuversincluding what appeared to be a rehearsal for a naval and air blockade of the island.

The critical strait is 160 kilometers (100 miles) wide and divides China from Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island where President-elect William Lai Ching-te It will be inaugurated on May 20. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party favors the de facto independent status of Taiwan, which maintains strong unofficial relations with the United States and other major nations.

Taiwan’s military increases its state of alert on sensitive dates, such as the presidential and legislative elections in January, fearful that China could use its much more powerful military to try to intimidate voters and influence public opinion in favor of insistence of Beijing that unification between the parties is inevitable. .

The sides split amid civil war in 1949, and as recently as 1996, China fired missiles just north and south of the island and held military exercises in an ultimately counterproductive attempt to dissuade voters from backing candidates they did not favor. Since then, China has largely kept a low profile surrounding the elections, preferring instead to curry favor with business groups and offer unification-oriented politicians and grassroots officials all-expenses-paid visits to the mainland.

Although the heavily trafficked strait is international water and vital to global trade, China views the passage of warships from the United States, Britain and other nations through the Taiwan Strait as a challenge to its sovereignty.

China sends warships and warplanes into the strait and other areas around the island almost daily to wear down Taiwan’s defenses and try to intimidate its 23 million people, who strongly support its de facto independence.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 23 Chinese military aircraft and eight warships were detected operating around Taiwan in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. Thursday. Eight of the aircraft crossed the median line in the strait and entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, prompting Taiwan to deploy aircraft and put coastal missile batteries and naval ships on alert.

In addition to sailing through the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. Navy conducts what it calls freedom of navigation operations, or FONOPS, in which it sails and flies in close proximity to Chinese-controlled elements in the Sea of Southern China, many of them man-made. islands that have been ‘militarized over the years with airstrips, radar stations and other capabilities.’

China claims the South China Sea, which is a major sea lane for global trade, almost entirely and reacts angrily to such moves, accusing the United States of destabilizing the region. It often follows American ships and aircraft with its own assets, demanding that they leave the area immediately. The United States claims it has the right to sail in the area under international law, and a U.N.-backed arbitration panel dismissed China’s claims, a ruling Beijing ignored.