China on ‘High Alert’ After US Sends Warship through Taiwan Strait

Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theatre Command, said its troops were on “high alert at all times” and would “resolutely” safeguard China’s national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability.

The comments came as the US Navy said its destroyer had conducted a “routine” transit in the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, which it described as a show of Washington’s commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, South China Morning Post reported.

“The United States military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows,” the US Navy Seventh Fleet said.

The US Navy routinely sails warships through the Taiwan Strait around once a month but the Sunday transit was the first since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California earlier this month.

Beijing responded to the closely watched meeting by staging three days of military drills around Taiwan, which included simulated precision strikes against key targets on and around the island.

Beijing views the self-ruled island as a renegade province awaiting reunification with the mainland and has not ruled out the use of force to take control of it.

The PLA has continued to send warplanes to the Taiwan Strait and maintain a military presence in the area after the latest exercise – called Joint Sword – wrapped up.

On Monday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 18 PLA aircraft and four navy vessels around the island and was monitoring their activities.

The USS Milius also conducted a freedom of navigation mission in the disputed South China Sea last week, angering Beijing, which claims almost all of the resource-rich waterway.

The American destroyer had sailed near Mischief Reef, part of the disputed Spratly Islands. The PLA’s Southern Theatre Command said the warship had “illegally intruded” into the waters and that China had “indisputable sovereignty” over islands in the South China Sea.

The US Navy Seventh fleet said last week that the US would continue to defend the rights and freedoms of the seas “as long as some countries continue to claim and assert limits on rights that exceed their authority under international law”.

“No member of the international community should be intimidated or coerced into giving up their rights and freedoms,” it said.