Two US Navy ships sail through Taiwan Strait


South China Morning Post
Thursday, 23 May 2019, 12:50PM

“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait shows the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, said.

Doss said the operation was carried out in a “safe and professional” manner.

In Taipei, Taiwan’s defence ministry said the two ships sailed north through the strait and that its armed forces monitored the vessels. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, it added.

There was no reaction from Beijing.

US warships have sailed through the Taiwan Strait at least once a month since the start of this year. The US restarted such missions on a regular basis in July.

Beijing ‘warns off’ US warships in South China Sea as tensions rise

Washington has no formal ties with Taiwan but was bound by law to help provide the island with the means to defend itself. The Pentagon said Washington had sold Taipei more than US$15 billion worth of weaponry since 2010.

Beijing has been ramping up pressure to assert its sovereignty over the island, which it considers a wayward province of “one China”, to be taken under Beijing’s control by force if needed.

Beijing was dismayed about a recent Taiwan Strait passage by a French warship.

China has repeatedly sent military aircraft and ships to circle Taiwan on exercises in the past few years and worked to isolate it internationally, whittling down its diplomatic allies.

The USS Preble took part in a “freedom of navigation” exercise near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Sunday. Photo: Reuters
On Sunday, the Preble sailed near the disputed Scarborough Shoal claimed by China in the South China Sea, angering Beijing.

The state-run China Daily said in an editorial on Wednesday that China had shown “utmost restraint in responding to the incitements by the US”

“With tensions between the two countries already rife, there is no guarantee that the presence of US warships on China’s doorstep will not spark direct confrontation between the two militaries,”
SCMP
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