China slams US Navy transit through Taiwan Strait

Two US Navy ships have sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait this week in the first such mission since President Donald Trump took office last month, drawing an angry reaction from China, which said the mission increased security risks.

China's military said that Chinese forces had been dispatched to keep watch.

"The US action sends the wrong signals and increases security risks," the Eastern Theatre Command of the People's Liberation Army said in a statement early on Wednesday.

"The US should handle Taiwan-related issues prudently and properly, so as to not send the wrong signal to Taiwan separatist forces," Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, told a regular press conference on Wednesday when asked about the ships' transit.

The US Navy said the vessels were the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and Pathfinder-class survey ship, USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit February 10-12, it said.

"The transit occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state's territorial seas," said Navy Commander Matthew Comer, a spokesperson at the US military's Indo-Pacific Command. "Within this corridor all nations enjoy high-seas freedom of navigation, overflight, and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms."

Taiwan's Defence Ministry said its forces had also kept watch but noted the "situation was as normal".

Sensitive strait

The last publicly acknowledged US Navy mission in the strait was in late November, when a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft flew over the waterway.

The last time a US Navy ship was confirmed to have sailed through the strait was in October, a joint mission with a Canadian warship.

China's military operates daily in the strait as part of what Taiwan's government views as part of Beijing's pressure campaign.

On Wednesday, Taiwan's Defence Ministry said that it had detected 30 Chinese military aircraft and seven navy ships operating around the island.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future.