a US warship sailing through the sensitive Taiwan Strait; angered China

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. warship sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Thursday, part of what the U.S. military says is a routine activity that has angered China.

In recent years, American warships, and sometimes those of allied nations such as Britain and Canada, have sailed through the strait, infuriating China, which claims Taiwan against the objections of its democratically elected government.

The US military said in a statement that the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Chung Hoon carried out the crossing.

“Chong Hun’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” the statement added.

In a statement, Liu Bingyu, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, said China firmly opposes the move and urged the United States to “immediately stop stirring up unrest, escalating tensions and undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

“US warships often flex their muscles in the name of exercising freedom of navigation. This is not about keeping the region free and open,” the statement said.

“China will continue to remain on high alert and ready to respond to all threats and provocations at any time, and will resolutely safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

A spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said it had organized forces to monitor and guard the ship’s transit, and “all movements were under control”.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said the ship had sailed in a northerly direction through the strait, and that its forces monitored its passage and did not notice anything out of the ordinary.

The narrow Taiwan Strait has been a frequent source of military tension ever since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists, who established the People’s Republic of China.

The United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is obligated by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

China has never ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan vows to defend itself if attacked, saying Beijing’s sovereignty claims are invalid because the People’s Republic of China never ruled the island.

A Chinese military aircraft came within 10 feet (3 metres) of a US Air Force plane in the disputed South China Sea last month and forced it to perform evasive maneuvers to avoid collision in international airspace.

The close confrontation followed what the US described as a recent trend of increasingly dangerous behavior by Chinese military aircraft.

(Reporting by Idris Ali). Additional reporting by Yimou Lee in Taipei and Liz Lee in Beijing. Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Leslie Adler and Raju Gopalakrishnan

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