The USS Barry on Thursday transited the Taiwan Strait, the US Seventh Fleet said yesterday.
The vessel made the transit “during routine underway operations ... in support of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” the US Seventh Fleet said on Facebook.
Earlier yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said that a US warship had sailed through the Taiwan Strait in a southerly direction, but it did not identify the vessel or say when the transit occurred.
US Seventh Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Anthony Junco identified the vessel involved as the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Barry, saying that it had conducted a “routine Taiwan Strait transit” in accordance with international law.
“The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The US Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows,” he said.
The USS Barry had previously transited the Taiwan Strait, also from north to south, on April 10, the same day that Chinese fighter jets drilled in waters close to Taiwan.
On Thursday, the ministry said that it had been monitoring the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, which on Wednesday passed east through the Bashi Strait south of Taiwan after conducting training exercises in the South China Sea.
The ministry released a black-and-white aerial surveillance photograph of the Liaoning, but did not say when or where it was taken.
China has frequently carried out drills near Taiwan in the past few months, including flying fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers near the nation, in moves denounced by Taipei as attempts at intimidation.
Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), an analyst at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the frequent appearances by US vessels are a form of “military public diplomacy” aimed at signaling the US’ commitment to the region, despite the Chinese military’s efforts to expand its influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
Additional reporting by Reuters
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the