Warships sailing through the Taiwan Strait were routine transits, the US and the UK said on Friday after China voiced its disapproval.
“On September 12, the US destroyer Higgins and the UK frigate Richmond transited the Taiwan Strait and engaged in disturbance and provocation,” Chinese Senior Colonel Shi Yi (施毅), a spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement on Friday.
The Chinese military “organized naval and air forces to track and monitor their transit throughout the process,” Shi said, adding that “the actions ... undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
Photo: Screen grab from the Web site of Defense Visual Information Distribution System
Earlier on Friday, China’s navy said that its new aircraft carrier the Fujian, which is still undergoing sea trials, had passed through the Strait.
The US Navy and, on occasion, ships from allies, including Canada, the UK and France, transit the Taiwan Strait, which they consider an international waterway, about once a month.
Taiwan also considers it an international waterway.
Photo: Screen grab from the Royal Navy’s Web site
The UK on Friday said that the sailing of the HMS Richmond through the Taiwan Strait was a routine passage that was in compliance with international law.
“HMS Richmond’s navigation through the Taiwan Strait was a routine passage as part of Carrier Strike Group 25,” a spokesperson for the British Ministry of Defence said.
The group, led by the HMS Prince Wales, is on a seven-and-a-half-month global deployment to the Indo-Pacific region that started on April 22.
“Wherever the Royal Navy operates, it does so in full compliance with international law and norms, and exercises freedom of navigation rights in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” the British spokesperson said.
The US Navy also described the mission as a routine transit.
“The ships transited through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” it said in a statement. “Navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited.”
Last week, Canadian frigate the HMCS Ville de Quebec and Australian destroyer the HMAS Brisbane also sailed through the Taiwan Strait, a move that was welcomed in Taipei by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It was the second time this year and the seventh time in less than three years that a Canadian warship transited the Taiwan Strait, and the first time this year that an Australian warship sailed through that route, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that it had detected 31 Chinese military aircraft and 13 Chinese naval vessels around Taiwan since early Friday — the highest number in a 24-hour period since May.
“Twenty-five out of 31 sorties crossed the median line [of the Taiwan Strait] and entered Taiwan’s northern, central and southwestern air defense identification zone,” it said. “We have monitored the situation and responded.”
Additional reporting by CNA
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