China said its military was “on high alert at all times to resolutely defend national sovereignty and security” after a United States navy warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday.
The USS Milius conducted what Washington described as “a routine transit” less than a week after China’s military exercises around Taiwan in response to the island’s president meeting the US House speaker.
The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command said it had followed and monitored the American destroyer as it sailed through the strait that separates Taiwan from mainland China.
“The United States military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows,” the US navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement.
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“The ship transited through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state. Milius’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The US navy sails through the strait about once a month and other navies also conduct regular freedom of navigation missions through the waters. Last year, China said foreign military vessels should no longer pass through the strait without express permission from Beijing.
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Tensions between Beijing and Taiwan were heightened earlier this month when Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, met House speaker Kevin McCarthy in California. Taiwan is a self-governing island and its government claims the right to conduct its own diplomatic affairs, although it has diplomatic relations with only a handful of countries.
Most countries, including the US and the European Union’s member-states, uphold the One China policy, recognising Beijing as China’s sole legal government. Neither the US nor the EU officially backs Taiwanese independence but they insist that reunification can only come through consent and have warned Beijing against the use of force.
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said during a visit to China last week that her government was monitoring tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
“Conflicts must be solved peacefully. A unilateral, violent change of the status quo would not be acceptable for us Europeans,” she said. “A military escalation in the Taiwan Strait… would be a horror scenario for the entire world.”
China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, on Monday rebuked Ms Baerbock, describing her remarks as irresponsible and warning against “interference” over Taiwan.
“The real status quo of the Taiwan question is that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China. The Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests. Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese. No foreign force has the right to interfere in the Taiwan question or to expect China to make any concessions on issues related to sovereignty and territorial integrity in front of external pressure,” he said.
“We should stand against Taiwanese independence and external interference firmly. We hope relevant parties will respect history and facts, and we hope certain politicians will have a correct understanding of history and fully understand what the Taiwan question is truly about. They need to abide by the One China principle and stop making irresponsible remarks.”
