China has reacted angrily to the US Navy’s “freedom of navigation” exercise, during which President Donald Trump’s administration deployed two naval vessels to sail through the Taiwan Strait.
According to the US Navy, a guided-missile destroyer, USS Ralph Johnson, and a Pathfinder-class survey ship, USNS Bowditch, made the transit between February 10 and 12.
“The transit occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state’s territorial seas,” said US Navy Commander in the Indo-Pacific Matthew Comer.
China responded by holding military drills in the Taiwan Strait, deploying vessels and aircraft.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, opposed the US Navy’s presence in the region, saying the US could not threaten China’s sovereignty in the name of “navigational freedom”.
“The Eastern Theatre Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army has already responded,” Jiakun said.
“I would like to emphasise that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory and that the question of Taiwan is not a matter of freedom of navigation, but a matter of China's sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.
“China firmly opposes any country provoking and threatening China's sovereignty and security in the name of freedom of navigation.”
The US and its allies regularly send vessels through the strait. The last US Navy vessel navigated the strait in October 2024 and an aircraft flew over in November 2024, according to media reports.
Chinese nationalists have controlled Taiwan since the declaration of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, rejecting the demands of the communists in Beijing who want to reunify the island, saying it is independent of the mainland.
