A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry said it has made clear to American officials its unease about passage through the Taiwan Strait of two U.S. Navy warships this week.
Geng Shuang added that Taiwan is the “most important and sensitive issue” for the U.S.-China relationship. China considers Taiwan a renegade province, not an independent nation.
“The Chinese side has been closely monitoring from start to end the passage by the U.S. warships through the Taiwan Strait,” Geng said during a daily news briefing. “We have expressed our concerns to the U.S.”
On Wednesday, the guided missile destroyer USS Stockdale and the USNS Pecos passed through the roughly 110-mile-wide strait between China and Taiwan as part of a “routine Taiwan Strait transit … in accordance with international law,” a U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman said in a statement. The move marked the third time in 2018 that U.S. Navy ships have sailed through the strait.
Although the U.S. has maintained that the U.S. Navy will continue to operate “anywhere international law allows,” China has been critical of American actions.
“The Taiwan issue concerns the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China,” Geng said.
China has said it’s taken offense at some Trump administration actions related to Taiwan. In August, China condemned Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to the Houston NASA headquarters. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang blamed the U.S. for helping “separatist forces” from Taiwan.
“We firmly oppose any country that has diplomatic ties with China engaging in any official interaction with Taiwan,” Lu added at the time.
President Trump is slated to meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping later this week at the G-20 summit to discuss trade policy.
