During meetings with US counterparts in the past few months, Chinese military officials repeatedly said that the Taiwan Strait is not within international waters, generating concern in Washington, a person familiar with the matter said.
The statement, which disputes the US interpretation of international law, has been delivered to the US government by Chinese officials on multiple occasions and at multiple levels, the person said.
The US and key allies routinely send naval vessels through the waterway as part of freedom of navigation exercises, with the view that much of the strait is in international waters.
Photo: Reuters
China has long asserted that the Taiwan Strait is part of its exclusive economic zone, and takes the view there are limits to the activities of foreign military vessels in those waters.
Although China regularly protests US military moves in the Taiwan Strait, the legal status of the waters had never previously been a talking point in meetings with US officials.
It is not clear whether the assertions indicate that China might take further steps to confront naval vessels that enter and transit the Taiwan Strait.
The US also conducts freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea to challenge Chinese territorial claims around disputed land features.
“The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, and that includes transiting through the Taiwan Strait,” Pentagon spokesman Martin Meiners said.
During a speech on Saturday at the IISS Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that China was unilaterally attempting to change the “status quo” regarding Taiwan.
“Our policy hasn’t changed,” Austin said. “But unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be true for the PRC [People’s Republic of China].”
“We’re seeing growing coercion from Beijing,” Austin told delegates at the security forum. “We’ve witnessed a steady increase in provocative and destabilizing military activity near Taiwan. That includes PLA [China’s People’s Liberation Army] aircraft flying near Taiwan in record numbers in recent months, and on a nearly daily basis.”
Austin’s speech was followed on Sunday by Chinese Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe (魏鳳和), who repeatedly expressed Beijing’s willingness to fight to prevent a formal split by the democratically elected government in Taipei.
Wei did not explicitly refer to the legal status of the Taiwan Strait.
“If anyone dares to secede Taiwan from China, we will not hesitate to fight,” Wei said, reaffirming Beijing’s longstanding position on the dispute. “We will fight at all costs, and we will fight to the very end. This is the only choice for China.”
The Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement on Sunday that Wei’s public threatening of the nation at an international event proved Beijing was the source of regional disturbance, calling his comments “tantamount to a declaration of war.”
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS