U.S. Navy Vessels, Aircraft Return to Taiwan Strait Amid China Fallout

United States military vessels and aircraft have resumed operations in the Taiwan Strait following a weeks-long pause on the back of heightened tensions between Beijing and Taipei.

On Sunday, the U.S. Navy's Japan-based Seventh Fleet said a pair of Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers, USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville, sailed through international waters in the strait, "beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state." It was the first such transit since mid-July, and since China ramped up its military maneuvers in the area in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's high-profile visit to Taiwan on August 2 and 3.

The White House said earlier in August that it would continue sending ships and planes through the strait. The State Department said the U.S. "won't be deterred from flying, from sailing, from operating in the region in accordance with international law."

The unambiguous messaging means China, which claims Taiwan as its own, wouldn't have been surprised by the weekend's activity. A People's Liberation Army (PLA) spokesperson, in a relatively tame response, said Chinese forces "tracked and monitored" the Yokosuka-based American warships, which Taiwan's Defense Ministry said transited from north to south.

Robin Hsu, a former Taiwan navy radar operator turned radio enthusiast, told Newsweek he has intercepted exchanges between Taiwanese, Chinese and American forces since August 28, each challenging the other's presence or asserting the right to operate in the region.

In one exchange on Sunday morning, a voice identifying himself as a member of the Chinese PLA Air Force appeared to challenge a U.S. aircraft that was "approaching China's territorial airspace." "Leave immediately, or you will be intercepted," he said.

The American aircraft, which Hsu said was likely a U.S. Navy SH-60 Seahawk thought to conducting flight operations in the center of Taiwan Strait at the time, was heard giving a standard reply.

"I am a United States military aircraft conducting lawful military activities in international airspace," one of the crew said. "In exercising these rights guaranteed by international law, I'm operating with due regard to the rights and duties of all states."

Beijing has said frequent warship and warplane transits through the Taiwan Strait are provocative. Washington argues they are lawful and a necessary part of upholding the principles of freedom of navigation and overflight, both guaranteed under international law.

The U.S. Navy's last Taiwan Strait transit was conducted by USS Benfold, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, on July 19. The weekend's operation was the seventh transit this year, but the first involving two Ticonderoga-class cruisers, according to recent public records.

"This is not about China. This is about what is in the best interest of Taiwan's interest specifically, and the region's interest as well," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday.

Repeating recent remarks by Kurt Campbell, President Joe Biden's top Asia policy adviser, Jean-Pierre said: "You will see in the coming days, and weeks and months, that our presence posture and exercises account for China's provocative and destabilizing behavior, with a view towards guiding the situation in the Western Pacific towards greater stability."

In an August white paper, Beijing said it would continue to pursue "peaceful unification" with Taiwan, the government and public of which see the island as a functionally independent state and largely reject the idea of a political union with China.

"But we will not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures," the document also said. "Use of force would be the last resort taken under compelling circumstances."

Zhang Jun, China's top envoy to the United Nations, told reporters in New York on Monday that the U.S. Navy's strait transit was "another provocative action." "They should stop doing that, stop dragging the whole Taiwan Strait into high tension," he said.

In a virtual briefing on the same day, John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House's National Security Council, said China was "trying to turn up the temperature" in the Taiwan Strait in order to create a "new normal."

"We're not going to accept whatever new normal the Chinese want to put in place," he said. "Nothing's changed, as we've said, about our adherence to the 'one China' policy. Nothing's changed about the fact that we do not support Taiwan independence."

"And frankly nothing's changed about the fact that we're going to continue to do what we can, in accordance with the law, to help Taiwan defend itself, as well as to defend our own national security interests in the region," Kirby said.

"You saw over the weekend. Two Navy cruisers conducting a Taiwan Strait transit in international waters. We're going to continue to abide by international law. We certainly urge the Chinese to do the same," he concluded.