A Week After China’s War Games, US and Canadian Warships Sail Through Taiwan Strait

TAIPEI, Taiwan — U.S. and Canadian warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, almost a week after China held massive war games around Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory.

The destroyer USS Higgins and the Canadian frigate HMCS Vancouver made a “routine” transit of the Taiwan Strait meant to uphold the principle of freedom of navigation for all countries, read a statement Monday by the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet.

The U.S. Navy, occasionally joined by ships from allied countries, regularly transits the sensitive waterway separating China from Taiwan. Germany sent two warships through the Taiwan Strait last month as it seeks to increase its defense engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.

China condemned the joint U.S.-Canada maneuver.

“The Taiwan issue is not about freedom of navigation but concerns China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said. “China firmly opposes any country provoking or threatening China’s sovereignty and security in the name of freedom of navigation.”

The Chinese military's Eastern Theater Command said the transit of the U.S. and Canadian warships undermined peace and stability in the region, and that it had mobilized naval and air forces to monitor them “in accordance with the law.”

The ships navigated “through waters where high-seas freedom of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” read the U.S. Navy 7th Fleet statement.

“The international community’s navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited,” it added.

Lin, asked about recent comments by U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump on Taiwan and China, said that Taiwan is a domestic issue “that allows no external interference” and that China opposes “any U.S. individuals making an issue of China during the elections.”

Trump told the Wall Street Journal editorial board that he is confident that China wouldn’t invade Taiwan if he were to return to the White House.

The U.S.-Canada transit came less than a week after China conducted large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan and its outlying islands last Monday, simulating the sealing off of key ports in a move that underscores the tense situation in the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing employed a record 125 aircraft, as well as its Liaoning aircraft carrier and ships as part of the drills, which were in reaction to a National Day speech by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te. Lai had emphasized his commitment to “resist annexation or encroachment” by Beijing.

Taiwan was a Japanese colony before being unified with China at the end of World War II. It split away in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists defeated them in a civil war and took power.

The U.S. is Taiwan’s biggest unofficial ally and is bound by its own laws to provide the island with the means to defend itself. China objects to American military sales and aid to Taiwan.

China also tries to restrict Taiwan's diplomatic space. South Africa confirmed last week that it had asked Taiwan to move its liaison office from Pretoria, the administrative capital, to Johannesburg, in a move seen as a concession to China.