The US destroyer USS Milius sailed through the Beijing-claimed Taiwan Strait on Sunday, the US Navy said, a week after extensive Chinese military maneuvers in the same area.
The USS Milius “conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait” on Sunday, the US Navy said in a statement, “in waters where freedom of navigation and overflight on the high seas applies in accordance with international law. ".
"The ship transited through a corridor in the strait located beyond any territorial sea of a coastal state," the statement added. "The United States military flies, sails and operates wherever international law permits."
Beijing said on Monday it had monitored the passage of a US warship through the strait and accused Washington of "hype" around the presence of its destroyer.
Chinese forces in the area "continuously maintain a high level of alert and resolutely uphold national sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability", said Shi Yi, a military spokesman. .
The situation at sea and in the air was "normal" around Taiwan during the passage of the USS Milius, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense assured Monday.
Beijing has been watching with dissatisfaction the rapprochement in recent years between this island and the United States which, despite the absence of official relations, provides it with substantial military support.
China regards Taiwan as a province that it has not yet managed to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. It aims for this reunification, by force if necessary.
Last week, the USS Milius passed through the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands, also claimed by Beijing. The Chinese government had denounced an "illegal intrusion".
A week before this American ship sailed near Taiwan, extensive Chinese military exercises had taken place around the island.
For three days, Chinese ships and warplanes had simulated a "closure" of Taiwan, in retaliation for a meeting in the United States between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy .
The drills officially ended on April 10, but Chinese armed forces boats and planes have continued to circulate around Taiwan ever since.
Taiwan's Ministry of Defense said on Monday it detected four Chinese ships and 18 aircraft, four of which entered Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
This island's ADIZ includes an area much larger than its airspace and overlaps part of China's ADIZ, even including a portion of the mainland.
Western warships regularly cruise through the Taiwan Strait and Beijing protests each time.
The American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon crossed it in January, followed in February by two American and Canadian frigates.
On the evening of April 9 to 10, a French surveillance frigate departing from Vietnam and en route to South Korea also passed through the strait, "in international waters, in accordance with the freedom of navigation", according to the state. -French major. The building had radio exchanges with the Chinese navy which had a "professional attitude, without aggressiveness", we comment on the French side.
In August 2022, Beijing carried out its biggest military maneuvers around Taiwan in decades, in response to a visit to Taipei by then-Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
04/17/2023 16:09:22 - Taipei (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
