A US warship sailed through the strait separating Taiwan and China on Tuesday, the navy said, the first such passage since leaders from the two rival superpowers held a video summit.

The passage through the Taiwan Strait by the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Milius was a routine transit, the US Seventh Fleet said.

The voyage, the 11th declared freedom of navigation exercise of the year, "demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," it said in a statement.

The latest transit came after US President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping traded strong warnings on the future of Taiwan at a virtual summit earlier this month.

Chinese state media reported after the summit that Xi cautioned Biden that encouraging Taiwanese independence would be "playing with fire".

US warships periodically conduct freedom of navigation sailings through the strait, often triggering angry responses from Beijing, which claims Taiwan and the surrounding waters as its own territory.

The United States and many other countries view the route as international waters open to all.

A growing number of US allies have transited the route as Beijing intensifies its military threats towards Taiwan and solidifies its control over the disputed South China Sea.

British, Canadian, French and Australian warships have all made passages through the Taiwan Strait in recent years, sparking protests from Beijing.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian slammed the latest transit as a "deliberate attempt to disrupt and undermine regional peace and stability".

"The US should immediately correct its mistake, stop stirring up trouble, crossing the line and playing with fire," he warned.

Collin Koh, a research fellow at Singapore's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, keeps a database of declared US transits through the Taiwan Strait.

Koh said western navies see the transits "as routine passage in the exercise of high seas freedoms and rights through the waterway".

"These days, these transits are routinised and publicised simply to emphasise the above mentioned established facts of how maritime user states exercise such freedoms and rights

Nine were conducted in 2019 followed by 15 in 2020. So far this year there have been 11, including the USS Milius crossing.

Related Links
Taiwan News at SinoDaily.com

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

China downgrades diplomatic ties with Lithuania over Taiwan row
Beijing (AFP) Nov 21, 2021
China has officially downgraded diplomatic ties with Lithuania, the foreign ministry in Beijing said Sunday, after Taiwan established a de facto embassy in Vilnius. China baulks at any official use of the word "Taiwan" in case it gives international legitimacy to the island, which Beijing considers part of its territory to be taken one day. "The Chinese government had to lower diplomatic relations between the two countries... to safeguard its sovereignty and the basic norms of international rela ... read more