US destroyer crosses the Taiwan Strait amid tensions with China

The United States Army announced Monday that a the missile destroyer made a “routine transit” this Sunday through the Taiwan Strait, a step that occurs at the time of tensions between Washington and Beijing and days after China deployed military maneuvers around the island.

Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Millius sailed through a corridor outside the territorial waters of any country and in which it is international laws allow freedom of navigation and overflight, according to a statement released today by the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet.

“The transit of the Milius through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the commitment of the United States to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The US military flies, operates and operates where international law allows,” the official text added.

This same ship sailed through the waters last week near the Spratly IslandsAnd an archipelago in the South China Sea over which Beijing disputes with the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.

The Chinese military then condemned the passage of the US destroyer, which it described as “illegal entry and without the approval of the Government” of China.

The presence of the American destroyer in the area coincides with the escalation of tensions between China and the United States due to the April 5 meeting in California (USA) held by the President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen and the President of the United Kingdom. US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.

In response to the meeting, China deployed four days of intensive military exercises around Taiwan which included a simulation of the blockade of the island and in which Shandong, the second aircraft carrier of the Asian country and the first of domestic production, participated.

The island is one of the biggest sources of conflict between China and the United States, mainly because Washington is Taiwan’s main arms supplier and would be its biggest military ally in the event of a war with the Asian giant.

Beijing has considered Taiwan a renegade province since the Kuomintang nationalists retreated there in 1949 after losing a civil war to the Communist army.