US Coast Guard ship transited Taiwan Strait after Blinken’s China visit: US Navy
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A file photo of a US Navy vessel in the South China Sea.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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TAIPEI - A US Coast Guard ship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, in a transit that China described as “public hype”, after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a high-profile
The national security cutter Stratton made a routine Taiwan Strait transit “through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law”, the US Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement on Thursday.
The politically sensitive strait, which separates China from the democratically governed island of Taiwan, is a frequent source of tension as Beijing steps up political and military pressure to try to force Taipei to accept Chinese sovereignty.
“Stratton’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The US military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows,” said the 7th Fleet.
The mission happened the day after Mr Blinken ended a visit to Beijing, in which the two countries agreed to stabilise their intense rivalry so that it does not veer into conflict, but failed to produce any major breakthrough.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said the ship sailed in a northerly direction and 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 China Coast Guard spokesman said, adding that China will resolutely safeguard its sovereignty and security, and maritime rights and interests.
A security source told Reuters the US ship left the strait in the early hours of Thursday morning.
US military vessels and, on occasion, those of its allies, have routinely sailed through the strait in recent years. China views such missions as provocation.
Earlier in June, 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.
Taiwan said on Wednesday that Chinese warships led by the aircraft carrier Shandong
