US warship sails through sensitive Taiwan Strait

Above, the USS Ralph Johnson guided missile destroyer, top, as Filipino sailors aboard the Philippine Navy frigate BRP Jose Rizal sail through waters west of Palawan in the South China Sea. (Armed Forces of the Philippines/AFP)

• China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory, and has in recent years upped military pressures
• Taiwan’s defense ministry confirmed that the USS Ralph Johnson sailed south to north

TAIPEI: A US warship sailed through a sensitive waterway separating Taiwan from China on Thursday, the US Navy said, as a way to demonstrate Washington’s “commitment to upholding freedom of navigation.”
China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory, and has in recent years upped military pressures by sending in increasing numbers of fighter jets, drones and naval vessels around the island.
Thursday’s transit of the 180-kilometer Taiwan Strait comes as the United States and its allies have increased crossings to reinforce its status as an international waterway, angering Beijing.
The voyage by the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson showed Washington’s “commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle,” the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said in a statement Thursday.
“No member of the international community should be intimidated or coerced into giving up their rights and freedoms.”
Taiwan’s defense ministry confirmed that the warship sailed south to north, and that “no anomaly was detected in our surroundings.”
Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army dismissed the transit as “a public hype” and said its Eastern Theatre Command “organized naval and air forces to tail and stand guard against the US ship’s passage throughout the entire process.”
Chinese troops “are on constant high alert to resolutely defend national sovereignty,” it said in a statement.
A Canadian Halifax-class frigate conducted last month “a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait,” a move condemned by the Chinese military.
Beijing has said it would never renounce the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in recent years, upping the rhetoric of “unification” being “inevitable.”
In response, Taiwan has strengthened economic and political ties with its partners — most notably the United States, its biggest weapons provider — while increasing its defense budget.
On Thursday, the island’s cabinet approved a record-high defense budget of NT$647 billion ($20.2 billion) for next year, an increase of six percent compared to 2024.
President Lai Ching-te said this month that the budget reflected Taiwan’s “determination to improve our self-defense capabilities... to ensure peace and prosperity.”
The amount would still need to be scrutinized and approved by Taiwan’s fractious parliament, where Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party no longer holds a majority.