US Navy Destroyer Transits Through Taiwan Strait

China's military said it monitored the US warship

A US Navy destroyer, the USS Ralph Johnson, sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Thursday, drawing protest from China.

Senior Col. Li Xi, the spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command, said air and sea assets were deployed to monitor the US warship as it traveled through the Strait.

“The Eastern Theater Command remains on high alert and will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability,” Li said.

The US always frames its Taiwan Strait transits as “routine” even though Beijing views them as provocations, and tensions in the region have been especially high in recent years.

“The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson (DDG 114) is conducting a routine Taiwan Strait transit on August 22 (local time) through waters where high-seas freedom of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said in a statement.

The last time a US Navy warship transited the Taiwan Strait was in May. The US has been encouraging allies to step up their presence near China’s coast, and a Canadian frigate made the provocative trip through the Strait on July 31.

At the time, Li said the Canadian frigate had “harassed and disrupted the situation and undermined peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.