The Chinese military were placed on high alert as an American warship transited the Taiwan Strait, the first such crossing in two months, South China Morning Post reported.
According to the report, People’s Liberation Army “troops” followed and monitored the US guided-missile destroyer Chung-hoon’s passage through the strait on Thursday.
“All movements were under control”, the PLA Eastern Theatre Command said, without specifying the service branches involved.
The sailing also prompted criticism from Beijing’s embassy in the US.
The US Navy 7th Fleet earlier said its Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-hoon had carried out a “routine Taiwan Strait transit … through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law”.
“The ship transited through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” it said in a statement.
“Chung-hoon’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows,” the statement added.
The Taiwanese defense ministry also monitored Chung-hoon’s passage, saying it observed nothing out of the ordinary as the vessel sailed in a northerly direction through the strait.
The Chinese embassy in Washington released a statement following the crossing, calling on the US to “immediately stop provoking troubles, escalating tensions and undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”.
“US warships frequently flex muscles in the name of exercising freedom of navigation. This is not about keeping the region free and open,” the embassy statement said, according to Reuters. (With inputs from Agencies)
