BEIJING/TAIPEI:
China accused the United States on Wednesday of threatening the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait following a U.S. warship once more sailed by way of the sensitive waterway that separates Taiwan from its giant neighbour.
The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet stated the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur carried out a “routine Taiwan Strait transit” on Tuesday in accordance with international law.
“The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military will continue to fly, sail, and operate anywhere international law allows,” it stated.
A spokesman for China’s Eastern Theatre Command expressed robust opposition and condemned the move, which comes amid heightened tensions in between the two powers.
“The U.S. actions sends the wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces, deliberately disrupting the regional situation and endangering peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” he stated.
Chinese forces tracked and monitored the ship all through its voyage, he added.
China believes Taiwan’s democratically elected government is bent on a formal declaration of independence for the island, a red line for Beijing.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen says they are currently an independent state referred to as the Republic of China, its formal name.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry stated the U.S. ship had sailed in a southerly path by way of the strait and the “situation was as normal”.
The U.S. Navy has been conducting such operations every single month or so.
The United States, like most nations, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is its most essential international backer and a main seller of arms.
Military tension in between Taiwan and Beijing have spiked more than the previous year, with Taipei complaining of China repeatedly sending its air force into Taiwan’s air defence zone.
Some of these activities can involve various fighters and bombers.
China has stated its activities about Taiwan are aimed at defending China’s sovereignty. Taiwan’s government has denounced it as attempts at intimidation.
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