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.
“The transit occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state’s territorial seas,“ said Navy Commander Matthew Comer, a spokesperson at the U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command. “Within this corridor all nations enjoy high-seas freedom of navigation, overflight, and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms.”
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China considers Taiwan its most important diplomatic issue and it is regularly a stumbling block in Sino-U.S. relations.
That statement called for “maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”, and voiced support for “Taiwan‘s meaningful participation in international organisations”.
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Taiwan's defence ministry said its forces had also kept watch but noted the “situation was as normal”.
On Wednesday, Taiwan's defence ministry said that it had detected 30 Chinese military aircraft and seven navy ships operating around the island in the previous 24 hour period.
Chinese state television said on Wednesday that since Lunar New Year’s Eve on January 28, the Eastern Theatre Command had repeatedly dispatched sea and air forces to carry out “combat readiness” patrols and training missions around Taiwan.
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.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future.
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