China's Military Confronts US Navy Over 'Provocative Acts' Near Border

The Chinese military cried foul on Wednesday after U.S. Navy warship the USS John Finn sailed through the sensitive waters of the Taiwan Strait for the first time this year.

The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army said the United States "openly hyped up" the move by publicizing its transit through the 100-mile-wide strait, according to spokesperson Col. Shi Yi, who said the U.S. had "frequently carried out provocative acts and maliciously undermined regional peace and stability."

The calculated display of U.S. military presence comes amid ongoing cross-strait tensions between Beijing and Taipei, which American and Taiwanese analysts fear could reach a crisis point this year.

Shi, the PLA spokesperson, said Chinese forces monitored the John Finn's passage and remained "on high alert at all times."

Taiwan's Defense Ministry said the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer transited the strait in a southerly direction, adding "no anomaly was detected in our surroundings."

The Chinese Defense Ministry did not immediately return Newsweek's written request for comment before publication.

For more than two years, the Chinese government has openly questioned the right of foreign militaries to transit the waterway without its permission. The Taiwan Strait is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, carrying cargo—including Chinese goods—to and from much of East and Northeast Asia.

The John Finn, which is homeported in Yokosuka, Japan, used waters "where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law," the U.S. Navy's Japan-based Seventh Fleet said in a statement. "The ship transited through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state."

"No member of the international community should be intimidated or coerced into giving up their rights and freedoms. The United States military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows," it said.

China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, although the Communist Party in Beijing has never ruled there. The U.S. officially does not recognize Taiwan's statehood, but it is the island's strongest security guarantor.

Regular transits of American and allied military assets serve to reinforce the belief, held in both Taipei and Beijing, that Washington could intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese offensive across the strait.

The Navy's last strait transit was conducted by a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft on December 6, keeping up a near-monthly pattern of operations by U.S. government vessels or aircraft—11 instances last year and 10 in 2022.

This week's transit came against the backdrop of China's increased political and military pressure on Taiwan, which continues to resist Beijing's desire for eventual "unification" across the strait.

Earlier this month, the China-skeptic Democratic Progressive Party, the governing party in Taipei since 2016, won Taiwan's presidential election, a victory that will keep its leaders in the executive branch for a dozen years by 2028.

China watchers expect the Communist Party leadership in Beijing to step up coercive military maneuvers and take political steps this year to further isolate the island in a bid to undermine its democratic government.