China Says Tailed US Warship in Taiwan Strait

China, which claims democratically-run Taiwan as its own territory, has been angered by stepped-up US support for the island, including arms sales and sailing warships through the Taiwan Strait, further souring Beijing-Washington relations.

The US Navy said the guided missile destroyer USS Mustin had conducted “a routine Taiwan Strait transit (on) Dec. 19 in accordance with international law”.

“The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” it added.

This is the 12th sailing through the strait by the US Navy this year.

China’s military, in a statement released by its Eastern Theatre Command, said its air and naval forces “tailed and monitored” the vessel throughout, Reuters reported.

Such missions “deliberately raise the temperature of the Taiwan issue, as they fear calm in the Taiwan Strait, and send flirtatious glances to Taiwan independence forces, seriously jeopardizing peace and stability in the strait”, it said.

The United States is engaging in a show of force and trying to use Taiwan as a pawn for its own selfish strategic purposes, the statement added.

In Taipei, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the US ship had proceeded in a southerly direction, that it has also monitored its movements, and that “the situation was as normal”.

Beijing believes Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen is bent on a formal declaration of independence for the island, a red line for Beijing. She says Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name.

Tsai has made bolstering Taiwan’s armed forces a priority in the face of repeated Chinese military activity near the island, including on occasion this year sending fighter jets across the Taiwan Strait’s median line, an unofficial buffer.