US sends two navy warships through strategic Taiwan strait

The US military has sent two navy warships through the Taiwan Strait as the Pentagon increases the frequency of movement through the strategic waterway despite opposition from China.

The increasing frequency of US navy voyages through the 112-mile sea passage that separates Taiwan from China has raised objections from Beijing but been welcomed in Taipei as a sign of support from the Trump administration against Chinese attempts to undermine the self-ruled democracy.

Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the US-China relationship, which also include a trade war, US sanctions and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom-of-navigation patrols.

The two destroyers were identified as the William P Lawrence and Stethem. The 180km-wide (112-mile) Taiwan Strait separates Taiwan from China.

“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the US navy’s seventh fleet, said in a statement.

Doss said there were no unsafe or unprofessional interactions with other countries’ vessels during the transit.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said the US ships had sailed north through the strait.

“US ships freely passing through the Taiwan Strait is part of the mission of carrying out the Indo-Pacific strategy,” it said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from China.

The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help provide it with the means to defend itself and is its main source of arms.

The Pentagon says Washington has sold Taipei more than $15bn in weaponry since 2010.

China is seeking to annex Taiwan, which operates like any other democratic nation with its own government, currency and military, and has stepped up attempts to isolate the island since the 2016 election of president Tsai Ing-wen, suspicious that her administration will push for formal independence.

Beijing has repeatedly sent military aircraft and ships to circle the island during drills and has sought to pick off Taiwan's formal diplomatic allies.