U.S. and Canadian warships transited the tension-filled Taiwan Strait as China flew dozens of aircraft near the island and a Chinese aircraft carrier is deployed east of Taiwan.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Rafael and the Canadian frigate Ottawa jointly made the Taiwan Strait passage on Wednesday, the Navy said in a statement.
The operation was designed to push back against Chinese claims to owning the entire 100-mile-wide waterway, said Navy Lt. Luka Bakic, a spokesman for the Seventh Fleet.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said on social media that the two warships were detected late at night sailing northward from the southern end of Taiwan. The ships were monitored by Taiwan military forces, the posting said, adding that “no anomaly was detected in our surroundings.”
The ships were sailing in a location where “high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” Lt. Bakic stated.
“The ships transited through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” he said. “The transit was unremarkable, unprovocative and consistent with international law.”
The two warships show U.S. and allied commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region, he added.
“Cooperation like this represents the centerpiece of our approach to a secure and prosperous region where aircraft and ships of all nations may fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows,” Lt. Bakic said.
The operation is part of monthly Navy and allied warship passages in the Taiwan Strait. Despite their routine nature, military tensions between the U.S. and Chinese militaries remain high.
The Pentagon recently released video and images of what officials said were some of the 180 “risky and coercive” aerial intercepts of U.S. surveillance aircraft just in the past few years.
China responded to the complaints by conducting what U.S. officials said was a dangerously close intercept of a B-52 bomber over the South China Sea during a nighttime flight.
The two allied warships were operating in the Taiwan Strait at the same time Chinese military forces were conducting a large-scale exercise around Taiwan.
The Chinese Communist Party-affiliated Global Times reported that the aircraft carrier Shandong, accompanied by naval and air forces, is engaged in exercises near Taiwan.
On Wednesday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said 43 Chinese aircraft and seven naval vessels were in the area around Taiwan. A total of 37 aircraft crossed the unofficial dividing line down the center of the Taiwan Strait, the ministry said.
The dividing line has served as a fragile border for decades and U.S. officials have said the crossing violate the status quo that has kept peace between the mainland and Taiwan.
The forces used on Wednesday included six Su-30 jets, 16 J-16 fighters, four J-10s and four H-6 bombers. Surveillance aircraft during the sorties included two airborne warning and control aircraft, one electronic warfare aircraft and two unmanned aerial vehicles. Two refueling tankers also took part.
On Thursday, 13 Chinese warplanes were detected around the island, an undisclosed number of them crossing the median line, the ministry said. The aircraft conducted joint combat patrols with PLA naval vessels.
For Chinese naval forces, the Shandong strike group included two missile destroyers and two frigates.
The exercises coincided with statements from two Chinese generals earlier this week warning that the PLA plan for using military force against Taiwan includes military strikes on foreign forces.
Gen. Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, said Monday that the PLA would “show no mercy” to foreign forces that try to stop a Chinese military takeover of Taiwan.
A second senior PLA officer, Lt. Gen. He Lei, said a war to take over Taiwan would be “legitimate” and “just.”
“Once the Chinese government is forced to use force to resolve the Taiwan question, it will be a war for reunification, a just and legitimate war supported and participated by the Chinese people, and a war to crush foreign interference,” Gen. He told CGTN television.
President Biden declared several times in seeking to deter Chinese military action that the U.S. military will intervene to defend Taiwan against a major Chinese military attack.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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