The US Navy described its patrol as a ‘routine’ exercise through the international waterway.
Published On 12 Feb 2025
China’s military has accused the United States of engaging in risky behaviour in the Taiwan Strait after two US naval ships transited the international waterway.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said it had monitored the movements of the USS Ralph Johnson, a naval destroyer, and the USNS Bowditch, a survey ship, as they moved through the waterway between Monday and Wednesday.
“The US action sends the wrong signals and increases security risks,” the Eastern Theatre Command of the PLA said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Troops in the theatre are on high alert at all times and are resolute in defending national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability,” Eastern Theatre spokesperson Colonel Li Xi said.
The US Navy later confirmed the movement of the two vessels through the strait, which they described as “routine” exercises.
“The transit occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state’s territorial seas,” said Navy Commander Matthew Comer, a spokesperson at the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command.
“Within this corridor, all nations enjoy high-seas freedom of navigation, overflight, and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms,” Comer said.
Taiwan’s defence ministry also said