It is very obvious that in the future the US and China will likely be involved in some kind of major conflict. Having noted this, the US has recently continued its military positioning relative to China as the Navy Times reports by sailing another warship through the Strait of Taiwan.
The guided-missile destroyer Russell transited the Taiwan Strait this week, U.S. Navy officials said.
Russell conducted the transit on Thursday and Friday “in accordance with international law,” U.S. Pacific Fleet spokeswoman Lt. j.g. Rachel Maul said in an email. “The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.
It was the second trip through the straitTalk o for a Navy warship in the past three weeks, as the McCampbell made the same trek on May 13, USNI News reported.
With Beijing claiming Taiwan as its own, and the United States continuing to assist the island without officially recognizing it as independent, such trips regularly irk the Chinese government.
After a similar U.S. Navy transit in January, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang warned that the United States should handle Taiwan-related issues “cautiously and properly so as to avoid damaging China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the Associated Press quoted Geng as saying.
The White House approved a $180 million potential arms sale to Taiwan last month, a move that China’s Ministry of National Defense spokesman, Wu Qian, criticized in an article by the state-run Xinhua News Agency. (source)