A US destroyer and a Canadian frigate sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday in the latest joint operation aimed at strengthening the route’s status as an international waterway.
Beijing claims its rights to the territory of Taiwan and the narrow water that separates the island from mainland China – one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
But The United States has long used “freedom of navigation” across the Taiwan Strait to counter China’s claims, and Western allies are increasingly joining the operation.
The USS Higgins, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, in collaboration with the Canadian Navy’s Halifax Vancouver-class frigate “made a routine passage through the Taiwan Strait on September 20, in accordance with international law,” the US Navy said.
“The ship has passed through a corridor in the Strait that is outside the territorial sea of any coastal State.”
Canada said HMCS Vancouver was on its way to join an ongoing mission to enforce UN sanctions against North Korea as it transited the USS Higgins through the Taiwan Strait.
“Today’s routine navigation in the Taiwan Strait demonstrates our commitment to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific,” Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said in a statement, using another term for the Asia-Pacific region.
A Chinese spokesman described the passage as a “public exhibition”.
“The troops are always on high alert, resolutely resist all threats and provocations and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Colonel Shi Yi was quoted as saying by CCTV.
British, Canadian, French and Australian warships have flown through the Taiwan Strait in recent years, sparking protests from Beijing.
Western ships also frequently traverse the South China Sea, another important shipping area that Beijing says falls under its control, despite a 2016 Hague ruling denying its claims, as well as some of its rival neighbors.
The last time American and Canadian warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait was 11 months ago, when the destroyer USS Dewey and frigate HMCS Winnipeg made their voyage.
The latest joint piece came a day after President Joe Biden again stated that US troops would come to Taiwan’s aid in the event of a Chinese invasion.
This is the fourth time Biden has made such comments, despite Washington’s longstanding official policy of “strategic ambiguity” – designed to prevent a Chinese invasion and to prevent Taiwan from provoking Beijing by officially declaring independence.
Each time, after Biden’s comments, the White House insists that there is no change in US policy towards Taiwan.
