22-6-2023 (TAIPEI) A United States Coast Guard ship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, despite warnings from China. The national security cutter Stratton made a “routine” transit through the strait, which separates China from the democratically governed island of Taiwan. The sensitive strait is a frequent source of tension as Beijing steps up its political and military pressure to try to force Taipei to accept Chinese sovereignty.
The mission happened the day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended a visit to Beijing, in which the two countries agreed to stabilise their intense rivalry so it does not veer into conflict, but failed to produce any major breakthrough. While Taiwan’s defence ministry said the ship sailed in a northerly direction, its forces monitored the situation, which it described as “normal”.
The Chinese coast guard described the ship’s transit as “public hype”. Chinese vessels tailed the US ship “all the way”, a spokesperson at China’s coast guard said in a statement, adding that China would “resolutely” safeguard its sovereignty and security, and maritime rights and interests.
The US Navy’s 7th Fleet said the Stratton’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrated the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, and that the United States military would fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.
US military vessels, and on occasion those of its allies, have routinely sailed through the strait in recent years, to the anger of China, which views such missions as provocation. This month, the US Navy released a video of an “unsafe interaction” in the strait, in which a Chinese warship crossed in front of a US destroyer operating with a Canadian warship.
Taiwan’s military reports almost daily Chinese incursions in the strait, mostly warplanes that cross the waterway’s median line, which once served as an unofficial barrier between the two. On Wednesday, Taiwan said that Chinese warships led by the aircraft carrier Shandong sailed through the strait.
