Two U.S. Navy ships sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait this week in the first such mission since President Donald Trump took office last month, drawing an angry reaction from China, which said the mission increased security risks.
The U.S. Navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the strait about once a month. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, says the strategic waterway belongs to it.
China’s military said the two U.S. ships, which it named as the destroyer Lyndon B. Johnson and the survey ship Bowditch, had passed through the strait between Monday and Wednesday, adding that Chinese forces had been dispatched to keep watch.
“The U.S. action sends the wrong signals and increases security risks,” the Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army said in a statement early Wednesday.
The U.S. Navy confirmed the transit. The last publicly acknowledged U.S. Navy mission in the strait was in late November, when a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft flew over the waterway.
The last time a U.S. Navy ship was confirmed to have sailed through the strait was in October, a joint mission with a Canadian warship.
China’s military operates daily in the strait as part of what Taiwan’s government views as part of Beijing’s pressure campaign.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.