This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
The transit through the Taiwan Strait by two U.S. naval vessels, the first such voyage under the new Trump administration, was a threat to China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, China said.
U.S. and Taiwan officials confirmed that the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and oceanographic survey ship USNS Bowditch made a north-to-south passage through the Taiwan Strait from Feb. 10-12.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said that the transit occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state’s territorial seas and that ships had done such “freedom of navigation” passages between the East China Sea and the South China Sea via the Taiwan Strait for many years.
But China rejected that.
“The Taiwan question has nothing to do with freedom of navigation but bears on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters in Beijing.
“China firmly opposes any country challenging or threatening China’s sovereignty and security under the pretext of freedom of navigation,” Guo said.
The Taiwanese defense ministry, commenting on the voyage by the two U.S. vessels, said the Taiwan military “maintained full control over the surrounding sea and airspace, with the situation remaining normal.”
The last publicly announced Taiwan Strait transit was in October, 2024, by the USS Higgins and Canadian frigate HMCS Vancouver. Beijing denounced the October transit as “provocative” and it responded by holding a live-fire exercise near Taiwan.
A Chinese military spokesperson, Senior Capt. Li Xi at the Eastern Theater Command, condemned the U.S. actions as sending the wrong signals and increasing security risks.
The command “organized its navy and air force troops to monitor the whole process of the U.S. vessels’ passage, and effectively managed the situation,” Li said.
China’s ‘waves’ of military drills
The Eastern Theater Command conducted a lengthy training exercise featuring combat alert patrols around Taiwan from Jan. 28-Feb. 12, according to the state broadcaster CCTV.
Besides warships, the command dispatched J-10C fighter jets and H-6K bombers to the area.
CCTV reported that Chinese naval and air forces took part in “waves” of drills, some of them taking place when the U.S. ships were sailing through the Taiwan Strait.
There was no report of any confrontation but CCTV said that there was friendly communication between Chinese Type 054A guided-missile frigate Huaibei and Taiwanese frigate Yi Yang on Feb. 12, the day of Chinese traditional lantern festival.
The Huaibei was holding a live-fire exercise under the Taiwan navy’s watch.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said earlier that day that its forces had detected 30 Chinese aircraft, seven warships and one official ship around the island. Some 23 out of 30 air sorties crossed the median line which serves as a de-facto boundary between Taiwan and the mainland.
Also on Feb. 12, another branch of the Chinese military – the Southern Theater Command – conducted patrols in the South China Sea as a response to recent joint drills between the Philippines and other countries.
On the same day, forces from the Philippines, Canada and the United States joined a Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
The drill featured a series of operational exercises focused on enhancing coordination and interoperability between the forces amid rising tensions with China in the waterway, according to a statement from the Philippine army.
Further away, aircraft from Japan, the U.S. and Australia are taking part in a show of force called Cope North Exercise in Guam and the surrounding airspace from Feb. 3 to Feb. 21.
