US sends destroyer through Taiwan Strait

International Desk: The United States Navy has sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. Pacific Fleet told The Japan Times, as military and trade tensions continue to fester between Beijing and Washington.

The guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell, which is based in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, and the fleet replenishment oiler USNS Walter S. Diehl conducted “a routine Taiwan Strait Transit” on Thursday “in accordance with international law,” U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Tim Gorman said.

“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Gorman said in a statement. “The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.”

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry also confirmed that the two U.S. vessels did sail through the strait. Separately, the ministry said that the Chinese Air Force had on Thursday also sent military aircraft, including H-6 heavy bombers and KJ-500 early-warning aircraft, through the Bashi Channel between Taiwan’s southern tip and the Philippines, into the western Pacific.

The 180-km-wide Taiwan Strait separates communist China from self-governed and democratic Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province that must be brought back into the fold — by force if necessary. Although the waterway is regarded as international waters, China has long been sensitive about the presence of U.S. military forces there.

That presence has grown since last year, with Thursday’s operation being the fourth known transit in less than six months. The U.S. Navy also sailed two ships through the strait in October and November, operations that were shadowed by multiple Chinese warships, and conducted a similar operation in July. Prior to that, the operations we believed to have occurred only about once a year.

The top U.S. naval officer, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, has refused to back down on the transits, discussing Taiwan with his Chinese counterparts earlier this month. At least one Chinese military officer raised the issue during the talks, state-run media reported.

Source: Agencies


risingbd/January 25, 2019/Mukul