TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s military has criticized the passage of a U.S. destroyer through the Taiwan Strait, which occurred less than two weeks before the attack on the island. new president takes office and while Washington and Beijing are making unequal efforts to reestablish regular military exchanges.
Navy Capt. Li Xi, a spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command, accused the United States of “publicly touting” 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 manage affairs “in accordance with laws and regulations.”
The Navy’s 7th 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 of the strait that lies “beyond the territorial sea” of any coastal state, the fleet statement said.
“Halsey’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle,” he 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 publicized” is standard practice when Beijing views such announcements as a way to push back against China’s ill-defined claims to some degree of control over who can and cannot freely cross the strait. There is no indication that the U.S. Navy acted differently in the latest case, nor that the Chinese response was any more vocal.
The last passage of this type It was April 17, a day after the U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs held their first talks since November 2022 in a bid to reduce regional tensions. Military-to-military contacts were cut off in August 2022, when Beijing suspended all such communications after Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, visited Taiwan. China responded with missile fire on Taiwan and staging a push In military maneuversincluding what appeared to be a rehearsal for a naval and air blockade of the island.
The critical strait is 160 kilometers wide and separates China from Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island where President-elect William Lai Ching-te 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 is increasing its alert status around sensitive dates, such as January’s presidential and legislative elections, amid fears that China could use its much more powerful military to try to intimidate voters and influence opinion public support for Beijing’s insistence 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 attempt ultimately to counter -productive to dissuade voters from supporting candidates they disfavor. Since then, China has largely kept a low profile around elections, preferring to curry favor with business groups and offer pro-unification politicians and local officials all-expenses-paid visits to the mainland.
Although the strait is busy, it is international waters and vital for global trade, China considers the passage of warships from the United States, Britain and other countries through the strait of Taiwan as a challenge to its sovereignty.
China sends warships and warplanes into the strait and other areas around the island almost daily to weaken Taiwan’s defenses and seek to intimidate its 23 million people, who strongly support their independence de facto.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 23 Chinese military aircraft and eight warships were detected operating around Taiwan in the 24 hours before 6 a.m. Thursday. Eight of the planes crossed the strait’s midline and entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, prompting Taiwan to dispatch jets and put coastal missile batteries and naval craft 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 near Chinese-held features in the South China Sea, many of which are of human origin. islands that have been “militarized over the years with airstrips, radar stations and other capabilities.”
China claims the South China Sea as the main maritime highway for almost all global trade and reacts with fury to such moves, accusing the United States of destabilizing the region. It often tracks U.S. ships and aircraft with its own assets, demanding that they leave the area immediately. The United States says it has the right under international law to navigate the region and a U.N.-backed arbitration panel has rejected China’s claims, a decision ignored by Beijing.
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News Source : apnews.com
