US reports ‘unsafe’ action by China in Taiwan Strait

Guided missile destroyer the USS Ralph Johnson and a noncommissioned oceanographic survey ship, the USNS Bowditch, transited the WPS strait Monday to Wednesday, according to a statement from China’s Defense Ministry. In response, the Chinese navy’s Eastern Theater Command “organized its navy and air force troops to monitor the whole process of the U.S. vessels’ passage, and effectively managed the situation,” spokesperson Li Xi was quoted as saying.

In a statement on X (formerly Twitter) Taiwan’s Defense Ministry cited the U.S. ships’ north-to-south passage but stressed the situation remained normal. The Ralph Johnson had last transited the waterway in August. The U.S. carried out eight such operations in the Taiwan Strait last year, according to a database maintained by Collin Koh, a senior fellow at Singapore’s Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies.

Commander Matthew Comer, Indo-Pacific Command spokesperson, told Reuters: “The transit occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state’s territorial seas. Within this corridor, all nations enjoy high-seas freedom of navigation, overflight, and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms.