A Chinese aircraft carrier and a US warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island of Taiwan from mainland China, on Friday, the Taiwanese and US defense ministries said. In a short message sent to AFP, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense confirmed the passage Friday in the Taiwan Strait of the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong. “We emphasize that we are warned and monitoring all aircraft carriers and ships of the PLA (Chinese People’s Liberation Army) operating in the vicinity of the Taiwan Strait,” warned the ministry.
The Taiwan Strait, a sensitive area
In an email to AFP, the US Department of Defense then announced that one “of (its) destroyers” had crossed the Taiwan Strait on Friday. The Taiwan Strait is an eminently sensitive area, Beijing considering Taiwan, a democratic and autonomous island, as part of its territory and having expressed its desire to seize it one day, by force if necessary. The United States, Taiwan’s main ally, considers the strait an international maritime zone and has sent warships to the area to carry out operations to defend “freedom of navigation”.
The announcement from the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense came before the conversation between the American and Chinese heads of state devoted to the situation in Ukraine. According to Chinese media, Chinese President Xi Jinping said during the interview that military conflicts between states were “in no one’s interest”. He stressed in particular that it was incumbent on the United States and China, as permanent members of the UN Security Council, to assume their “international responsibilities and to work for peace (…) in the world”.
Ship movements that are not uncommon
The White House for its part said that US President Joe Biden had “reaffirmed that US policy towards Taiwan has not changed and stressed that the United States continues to oppose any unilateral changes of the status quo”. Warship movements in the 180 km wide Taiwan Strait are not uncommon.
The Shandong previously sailed through the strait in December 2020, the day after a US warship passed. The same aircraft carrier crossed the strait in December 2019, a few weeks before elections in Taiwan.
US support for Taiwan ‘seriously jeopardizes’ relations with China
Under the Biden administration, Washington has lent its support to Taipei, approving at least two arms deals to the island to bolster its air and missile defense systems to respond to warplane incursions. Chinese.
Beijing considers that this support “seriously compromises” relations between the United States and China. China has massively boosted its strike force in recent years, sending 969 warplanes to Taiwan’s air defense zone in 2020, according to an AFP compilation, more than twice as many as the 380 planes reported in 2016.
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