US destroyer passes through Taiwan Strait claimed by Beijing

The US destroyer USS Milius entered the Taiwan Strait claimed by Beijing this Sunday, the US Navy announced a week after extensive Chinese military exercises in the same area.

The USS Milius “carried out a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait,” the US Navy said in a statement, “in waters where freedom of navigation and overflight on the high seas exists under international law.” “The ship transited a corridor in the strait located outside any territorial sea of ​​the coastal state,” the message says. “The US military flies, swims and operates wherever international law allows. »

Chinese troops put on ‘alert’

On Monday, Beijing said it watched a US warship pass through the strait and accused Washington of creating “media hype” around its destroyer’s presence. Chinese forces in the area “constantly maintain a high level of combat readiness and resolutely maintain national sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability,” military spokesman Shi Yi said.

China is displeased with the rapprochement in recent years between the Taiwanese authorities and the United States, which, despite the absence of official relations, provides the island with significant military support.

Beijing sees Taiwan as a province that it has not yet been able to reunite with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. China seeks this reunification, by force if necessary.

“Illegal Invasion” for Beijing

Last week, the USS Milius sailed near the Spratly Islands, also claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea. The Chinese government condemned the “illegal invasion”. The passage of a US warship near Taiwan comes a week after extensive Chinese military exercises around the island.

For three days, Chinese warships and military aircraft simulated a “shut down” of Taiwan in retaliation for a meeting in the United States between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy. The exercise officially ended on April 10, but Chinese warships and aircraft have continued to fly across Taiwan ever since.

The Taiwan Ministry of Defense said on Monday it had detected four Chinese ships and 18 aircraft, four of which entered the Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Taiwan’s air defenses are not identical to the island’s airspace and include a much larger area that overlaps part of China’s air defenses and even includes part of the mainland.