| |
China Slams US for Using Taiwan Strait 05/09 06:18
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- China's military criticized a U.S. destroyer's
passage through the Taiwan Strait less than two weeks before the island's new
president takes office and while Washington and Beijing are making uneven
efforts to restore regular military exchanges.
Navy Senior Capt. Li Xi, spokesperson for China's Eastern Theater Command,
accused the U.S. of having "publicly hyped" the passage of the USS Halsey on
Wednesday. In a statement, Li said the command, which oversees operations
around the strait, "organized naval and air forces to monitor" the ship's
transit.
The U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet said the Halsey "conducted a routine Taiwan Strait
transit on May 8 through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and
overflight apply in accordance with international law."
The guided-missile destroyer transited through a corridor in the strait that
is "beyond the territorial sea" of any coastal state, the fleet said in a
statement.
"Halsey's transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States'
commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle,"
it said. "No member of the international community should be intimidated or
coerced into giving up their rights and freedoms. The United States military
flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows."
China's accusation that the transit was "publicly hyped" -- essentially
meaning it was played up for maximum political effect -- has been standard
practice when Beijing sees the announcements as a means of pushing back against
China's claim to some degree of control over who can pass freely through the
strait. There was no indication the U.S. Navy had operated any differently in
the latest case, nor that the Chinese response was any more vociferous.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it was fully aware of the destroyer's passage.
"Throughout the transit, the Taiwanese military was closely monitoring the
surrounding sea and airspace, and the situation remained normal," the ministry
said.
The last such passage was on April 17, a day after U.S. and Chinese defense
chiefs held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce
regional tensions. Military-to-military contact stalled in August 2022, when
Beijing suspended all such communication after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
visited Taiwan. China responded by firing missiles over Taiwan and staging a
surge in military maneuvers, including what appeared to be a rehearsal of a
naval and aerial blockade of the island.
The critical strait is 160 kilometers (100 mile) wide and divides China from
Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy where President-elect William Lai
Ching-te will be inaugurated on May 20. Lai's Democratic Progressive Party
favors Taiwan's de facto independent status under which it maintains strong
unofficial relations with the U.S. and other major nations.
Taiwan's military heightens its alert status around sensitive dates, such as
this January's presidential and legislative elections, wary that China might
use its vastly more powerful military to attempt to intimidate voters and sway
public opinion in favor of Beijing's insistence that unification between the
sides is inevitable.
The two sides split during a civil war in 1949, and as recently as 1996,
China fired missiles just north and south of the island and held military
exercises in an ultimately counterproductive bid to deter voters from backing
candidates they opposed. Since then, China has largely kept a low profile
around elections, favoring instead to curry favor with business groups and
treat unification-oriented politicians and grassroots officials to all-expenses
paid visits to the mainland.
Although the heavily transited Taiwan Strait is international waters and
vital to global trade, China considers the passage of warships from the U.S.,
Britain and other nations as a challenge to its sovereignty.
China sends navy ships and warplanes into the strait and other areas around
the island almost daily to wear down Taiwan's defenses and seek to intimidate
its 23 million people, who firmly back their de facto independence.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry said 23 Chinese military aircraft and eight naval
ships were detected operating around Taiwan in the 24 hours up to 6 a.m.
Thursday. Eight of the planes crossed the median line in the strait and entered
Taiwan's air defense identification zone, prompting Taiwan to scramble jets and
put coastal missile batteries and naval craft on alert.
In addition to sailing through the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. Navy conducts
what it calls freedom of navigation operations in which it sails and flies in
close proximity to Chinese-held features in the South China Sea, many of them
human-made islands that have been 'militarized over the years with air strips,
radar stations and other capabilities.
China claims virtually all of the South China Sea, a principal maritime
highway for global trade, and reacts furiously to such moves, accusing the U.S.
of destabilizing the region. It often shadows the U.S. vessels and planes with
its own assets, demanding they leave the area immediately. The U.S. claims it
has the right under international law to sail in the area and a U.N.-backed
arbitration panel has tossed out China's claims, a ruling Beijing ignored.
|
|
