US President Joe Biden’s administration has decided to reject a vague new assertion by China that the Taiwan Strait is not “international waters” and is increasingly concerned the stance could result in more frequent challenges at sea for Taiwan, people familiar with the matter said.
Chinese officials have made such remarks repeatedly in meetings with US counterparts over the past few months.
In the past, while China regularly protested US military moves in the Taiwan Strait, the legal status of the waters was not a regular talking point in meetings with US officials.
Photo: AP
The timing of the assertion is causing alarm within the Biden administration, given that the global security environment is fraught in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In February, China and Russia suggested in a joint statement that they might support each other’s territorial claims in a way that one official said resembled a bid to carve out spheres of influence.
Biden has been briefed on the matter and his national security team is examining the Chinese claim to understand exactly what it entails, the people said.
The team is looking at the language China has used to describe the Strait in previous decades and is working with US allies to assess their interpretations of the language.
US officials are increasingly concerned that the claim might be a deliberate effort to muddy the legal interpretation of the sea around Taiwan in ways that could suggest that China regards it as an internal waterway, officials said.
Washington has conveyed its position to Beijing.
It is unclear what China means by “international waters,” but the language might be intended to deter the US from sailing through the Strait, a practice that Beijing has criticized as harming stability and sending the wrong signal to “Taiwan independence forces.”
It remains unclear whether China would take practical steps to enforce its position, the people said.
Some previous Chinese claims, such as its proclamation of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in 2013, have been only sporadically enforced. While the Chinese military has made regular incursions into Taiwan’s ADIZ over the past few years, China’s maritime challenges have been more limited.
The White House and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
The US is unlikely to be stopped by the more assertive language from China, whose claims over Taiwan have taken on a new focus since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Some US officials believe that China is gauging the response in Washington to the Ukraine crisis as a proxy for how the US would deal with more aggressive action by Beijing against Taiwan.
US warships transit the Taiwan Strait several times a year while as they sail from the East China Sea to the South China Sea, averaging about one trip a month since 2020.
This year, the US Navy has conducted at least five transits, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and would probably continue to do so to see if Beijing would back its words with actions.
“The Taiwan Strait is an international waterway” where freedom of navigation and overflight “are guaranteed under international law,” US Department of State spokesman Ned Price said in an e-mail. “The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, and that includes transiting through the Taiwan Strait.”
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which China has ratified, but the US has not, nations are entitled to territorial waters stretching 12 nautical miles (22km) from their coast.
They may also claim an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) stretching another 200 nautical miles — beyond that are the high seas.
At its widest, the Taiwan Strait spans about 220 nautical miles.
Even if China were to use the same legal terms as other countries, it does not interpret the associated rights in the same way as the US and its allies. China seeks to restrict what militaries can do in the area claimed as its EEZ, while the US and its allies have a much freer interpretation.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
RSS