Following the latest in a series of passages by US warships through Taiwan Strait after the USS Benfold conducted a routine transit through the waterway, China slammed the United States on Wednesday calling it a destroyer of peace and maker of security risks.
Following the transit, the US Navy’s 7th Fleet said the US destroyer was sailing in the international waters in accordance with international law. That was confirmed by Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense which said the US ship sailed north through the strait, describing the situation in the strait as normal.
However, since Beijing views Taiwan as part of its territory and the Taiwan Strait that separates mainland China from the island is a flashpoint between the two sides, China considers US warships’ frequent presence there a provocation, as China’s military said on Wednesday.
The US warships are sailing through the sensitive waterway about once a month since, in contrast to Beijing’s position, Washington sees the strait as part of international waters and thus open to all, angering China, which views such voyages as a sign of support the democratically governed island.
Stressing that it remains on high alert at all times and is ready to resolutely defend China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command said that its forces had followed USS Benfold throughout and warned it.
The US Navy, on the other hand, said the destroyer transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State in a demonstration of the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.
In the past week, USS Benfold has carried out two “Freedom of Navigation Operations” in the disputed South China Sea.
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