Two-China Policy

U.S. warships pass through Taiwan Strait amid China tensions

By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Jess Macy Yu

WASHINGTON/TAIPEI -- Two U.S. warships passed through the Taiwan Strait on Saturday on a voyage that will likely be viewed in the self-ruled island as a sign of support by President Donald Trump amid heightened tension with China.
“Two U.S. Navy ships conducted a routine transit through the international waters of the Taiwan Strait on July 7-8 (local time),” Captain Charlie Brown, a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Fleet, told Reuters in a statement.
“U.S. Navy Ships transit between the South China Sea and East China Sea via the Taiwan Strait and have done so for many years,” Brown said.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the destroyers USS Mustin and USS Benfold carried out the passage.
Earlier on Saturday, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said the ships were moving in a northeastern direction, adding that the situation was in accordance with regulations.
Washington has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help it defend itself and is the island’s main source of arms. 

China regularly says Taiwan is the most sensitive issue in its ties with the United States.
The passage through the Taiwan Strait, the first such one by a U.S. Navy ship in about a year, follows a series of Chinese military drills around the island that have stoked tensions between Taipei and Beijing.
China claims Taiwan as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring under its control what it sees as a wayward province. 

Taiwan has shown no interest in being governed by the ruling Communist Party in Beijing.
The move comes as a U.S.-China trade fight is seen as dragging on for a potentially prolonged period, as the world’s two biggest economies flex their muscles with no sign of negotiations to ease tensions.
Reuters first reported last month that the United States was considering sending a warship and had examined plans for an aircraft carrier passage, but ultimately did not pursue that option perhaps because of concerns about upsetting China.
The last time a U.S. aircraft carrier transited the Taiwan Strait was in 2007, during the administration of George W. Bush, and some U.S. military officials believe a carrier transit is overdue.
U.S. overtures towards Taiwan, from unveiling a new de facto embassy to passing the Taiwan Travel Act, which encourages U.S. officials to visit, have further escalated tension between Beijing and Taipei.
U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis discussed the delicate issue of Taiwan during his trip to China last month.
“The U.S. sending military ships through the Taiwan Strait is both a demonstration of its continuing support to Taiwan and of its willingness to exercise its maritime rights in China’s periphery,” said Abraham Denmark, a former deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia under Barack Obama.
China has alarmed Taiwan by ramping up military exercises this year, including flying bombers and other military aircraft around the island and sending its carrier through the narrow Taiwan Strait separating it from Taiwan.
In recent months, China’s air force has held military manoeuvres near the island, which Taipei has called intimidation.
China’s hostility toward Taiwan has grown since Tsai Ing-wen from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party won presidential elections on the island in 2016.

"The United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows"

US destroyer sails close to contested island in South China Sea
By Ryan Browne, Serenitie Wang and Ben Westcott

A US destroyer has sailed within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese-claimed island in the South China Sea, a highly-contested stretch of water where China's been reclaiming land and building islands, the US Navy confirmed in a statement Friday.

The US Navy conducts regular Freedom of Navigation operations in the region with the unstated goal of challenging China's huge, disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea.
On Friday, the USS Mustin sailed close to Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, an island chain also claimed by the Philippines, the US Navy said.
"All operations are designed in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows," Nicole Schwegman, US Pacific Fleet spokeswoman, said.
The Chinese government has laid claim a large swathe of territory in the region, overlapping areas claimed by other countries including Vietnam and the Philippines.
To reinforce its position, Beijing has reclaimed land and constructed military assets on a series of reefs in the Spratly and Paracel island chains in the South China Sea.

In October 2017, the US Navy destroyer USS Chafee also sailed close to the Paracels, provoking a stern reaction from the Chinese Defense Ministry. 

On Friday, the Chinese Navy announced it would hold live fire drills in the South China Sea at an undisclosed date and location.

According to state media, the navy will hold the drills "in the near future" but didn't elaborate further on their timing or what they would entail.
"The purpose is to test and improve the training level of the troops and comprehensively improve the ability to win," state media said.
The drills do "not target any particular country," the report added.
For many years the South China Sea has been considered an international flashpoint, as the US and China attempt to assert their influence in the region.
But the ongoing nuclear crisis in North Korea and a distracted US government under President Donald Trump has diverted attention from the area, allowing the Chinese government to tighten its hold.
"The Chinese continue to pace with their long-term strategy to gain de facto control over the sea lanes in the South China Sea. And what changed is the United States stopped paying attention," Michael Fuchs, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, told CNN in December.